.^^^Syofpr^^ 


^iOGlCM  SEWV^ 


BV    A254    .F7    V55    1849 
Vinet,    Alexandre   Rodolphe, 

1797-1847. 
Gospel    studies 


GOSPEL   STUDIES, 


BY 

ALEXANDER^  VINET,   D.D., 

TROFESSOR   OF   THEOLOGY   IN   LAUSANNE,    SWITZERLAND  ;    AUTHOR   OF    "  VITAL 
CHRISTIANITY,"   ETC. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION 

BY 

ROBERT     BAIRD,     D.D 


NEW  YORK: 
M.  W.  DODD,  No.  506  BROADWAY. 


jrri. 


^  APR 


^g/calSoT 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  author  of  the  beautiful  Discourses  which  follow,  unde*- 
the  title  of  *'  Gospel  Studies,"  was  the  late  Dr.  Alexander 
Vinet,  of  Switzerland — probably  the  most  profound  meta- 
physician that  the  Continent,  if  not  Europe  entire,  has  pro- 
duced in  our  times.  But  he  was  not  only  a  distinguished 
philosopher ;  he  was  an  able  divine  and  an  admirable 
preacher. 

Dr.  Vinet  was  born  on  the  19th  of  June,  1797,  in  the 
city  of  Lausanne,  the  capital  of  the  Canton  Vaud,  one  of  the 
finest  portions  of  the  country  of  William  Tell.  In  this  pic- 
turesque old  city,  standing  on  the  high  bank  of  Lake 
Leman,  he  passed  his  youth,  prosecuting  his  studies  in  the 
"  Academy  "  (or  University,  as  we  should  term  it)  founded 
by  Viret,  the  Reformer  of  Lausanne,  and  of  the  region 
around,  at  that  period  (the  16th  century)  a  part  of  the 
Canton  Berne.  From  an  early  age  he  displayed  a  great 
taste  for  literature  and  for  moral  science,  in  both  of  which 
he  was  destined  to  excel. 

<  •  At  the  age  of  twenty,  two  years  before  the  legal  termi- 
nation of  his  studies  in  that  Academy,  he  was  appointed 
Professor  of  the  French  language  and  literature  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Basle,  the  capital  of  the  Canton  of  the  same  name, 
an  old  German  city  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine.    This  city 


IV  INTRODUCTION. 

was  the  scene  of  the  labors  of  the  good  Pecolampaclius,  one 
of  the  mopt  distinguished  of  the  Reformers,  of  glorious 
memory,  as  well  as  the  residence  during  many  years  of  his 
life  of  Erasmus,  and  the  place  of  his  death. 

Dr.  Yinet  resided  about  twenty  years  at  Basle,  officiat- 
ing as  Pastor  of  the  Protestant  French  Church  in  that  city, 
whilst  performing  his  duties  as  a  Professor  in  the  University. 
During  this  period  he  wrote  several  of  his  excellent  works. 

In  1837,  Dr.  Yinet  was  invited  by  the  government  of 
his  native  Canton  to  the  Professorship  of  Theology  in  the 
Academy  of  Lausanne.  In  that  city  he  spent  the  last  tea 
years  of  his  life.  In  the  summer  of  1847,  he  was  called 
by  the  Master  to  his  everlasting  rest  and  reward,  and  left 
behind  him  a  great  circle  of  admiring  and  weeping  friends, 
to  deplore  the  loss  which  the  Church  and  the  world  have 
sustained  by  his  removal. 

In  1830,  Dr.  Yinet  published  his  first  volume  on  reli- 
gious subjects,  consisting  of  two  Discourses,  one  entitled. 
The  Intolerance  of  the  Gospel;  the  other,  The  Tolerance 
of  the  Gospel — a  work  which  attracted  no  little  attention. 
In  1836  he  published  at  Paris  his  Discourses  on  some  Meli- 
gious  Subjects^  which  was  followed  not  long  afterwards  by 
another  volume  entitled,  JSFew  Discourses,  on  the  same 
topic* 

After  these  volumes  succeeded,  at  intervals,  some  six 
or  eight  others  on  Religious,  Philosophical,  and  Literary 
subjects,  all  of  them  possessing  great  merit,  and  some  of 
them  displaying  the  very  highest  and  noblest  attributes  and 
qualities  of  the  human  mind.  Besides  these  works,  issued 
in  a  more  permanent  form,  Dr.  Yinet  wrote  much  for  the 


*  It  is  from  these  two  volumes  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Turnbull  has  se- 
lected the  Discourses  which  he  has  so  well  translated,  and  given  to  the 
world  under  the  title  of  Vital  Christianity^  by  Vinet. 


INTRODUCTION.  V 

Semeur^  a  literary  gazette  published  once  a  week  in  Paris, 
since  1832  or  '33,  aa  well  as  for  other  periodicals  of  that 
day.  All  these  articles  bear  the  impress  of  his  powerful 
intellect  and  his  exquisite  taste. 

But  the  great  work  of  Dr.  Vinet  was  one  of  the  last 
which  came  from  his  pen,  and  is  entitled,  The  Manifesta- 
tion of  Religious  Convictions  and  the  Separation  of  the 
Church  from  the  State  * — a  work  wj^ich  has  been  translated 
into  German,  and  has  produced  a  great  sensation  in  France, 
Germany,  and  Switzerland.  Nor  has  its  influence  been 
confined  to  those  countries.  It  is  manifest  that  the  mind 
of  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Baptist  W.  Noel  has  been  greatly 
enlightened  by  the  profound  argument  which  Dr.  Vinet 
has  developed  in  that  admirable  volume. 

In  his  last  years,  Dr.  Vinet  was  greatly  occupied  with 
the  ecclesiastical  afiairs  of  the  Canton  Vaud ;  and  one  of 
the  last  things  which  he  wrote  was  the  Confession  and 
Economy  of  the  Free  Church  of  that  Canton,  organized 
but  a  few  months  before  his  death.  This  was  a  work 
which  he  had  greatly  at  heart.  Alas !  he  was  called  away 
from  that  church  just  at  the  moment  when  it  was  com- 
mencing its  existence,  and  when,  to  the  view  of  men,  his 
presence  and  his  aid  were  so  much  needed  to  sustain  and 
guide  in  the  lieavy  persecutions  which  have  since  befallen 
it,  and  of  which  we  cannot  yet  discern  the  termination. 

Respecting  the  volume  which  these  brief  remarks  are 
designed  to  introduce  to  the  American  reader,  it  may  not 
be  amiss  to  say  a  word  or  two.  It  will  be  found  to  cor- 
respond admirably  with  the  beautiful  title  which  it  bears : — 
Gospel  Studies.  It  is  at  once  simple  and  profound.  The 
mode  of  treating  every  topic  is  as  different  as  it  is  possible 


*  Sur  La  Manifestation  des  Convictions  Religieusea  et  sur  La  Sepa- 
ration de  I'Eglise  de  I'fitat.  * 


VI  INTRODUCTION. 

to  conceive,  from  that  which  an  Anglo-American  author 
would  pursue.  It  is  emphatically  French.  On  this  ac- 
count the  work  is  the  more  valuable.  The  reader  will  be 
struck  with  its  fresh  and  interesting  character  at  every 
step.  Every  thought  is  presented  under  a  garb  novel  and 
striking.  There  is  here  nothing  trite,  nothing  hackneyed, 
nothing  formal.  Everything  is  new.  The  old  theological 
terms  are  dispensed  with  as  much  as  possible.  Dr.  Vinet 
was,  like  John  Foster,  a  philosopher  rather  than  a  theolo- 
gian. He  presents  the  great  truths  of  the  Gospel  in  a 
philosophical  manner,  and  yet  in  a  manner  beautiful  for  its 
simplicity.  No  one  can  read  a  page  of  this  book  without 
being  made  to  think.  Every  truth  is  revolved  and  reviewed, 
till  it  gains  a  firm  lodgment  in  the  mind  of  the  reader,  and 
with  God's  blessing,  it  cannot  fail  to  do  good  to  all,  but 
especially  to  those  who  are  likely  to  be  repelled  by  the 
phraseology  which  they  would  certainly  find  in  a  work 
written  by  an  American  or  an  English  author.  To  His 
blessing,  this,  the  first  edition  of  it  in  our  country,  is  de- 
voutly commended. 

R.  B. 
New-York^  May.,  1849. 


contents; 


PAGE 

Looking ^ 

Love  in  the  Spirit ^^ 

The  Believer  completing  the  Sufferings  -of  Christ (0 

Philosophy  and  Tradition "2 

The  Precautions  of  Faith 1^^ 

Imaginary  Perfection 1^' 

The  Stones  of  the  Temple ^^° 

One  Nation  and  all  Nations *. . . .  ^ 188 

Christian  Utilitarianism 213 

Jesus  Invisible 237 

Grace  and  Paith 261 

Wrath  and  Prayer 279 

Two   Counsels  of  Wisdom:  Counsel  to   those  who  are 

Setting  Out 297 


VIU  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Two    Counsels    of   Wisdom  :     Counsel    to    those    who 

Walk  in  the  Night 314 

Simon  Peter  (First  Discourse) 332 

Simon  Peter  (Second  Discourse) 348 


GOSPEL  STUDIES 


LOOKING. 

"  And  Moses  made  a  serpent  of  brass,  and  put  it  upon  a  pole  ;  and  it 
came  to  pass,  that  if  a  serpent  had  bitten  any  man,  when  he  beheld 
the  serpent  of  brass,  he  lived." — Num.  xxi.  9. 

Though  we  walk  by  faith  and  not  by  sight,  it  is  to  a  look 
that  our  salvation  is  attached,  and  the  faith  which  saves  us  is 
nothing  but  this  look.  Our  condition  in  the  wilderness  of 
life  resembles  that  of  the  Israelites  in  their  wilderness. 
Those  were  cured  who  looked  to  the  serpent  of  brass,  and 
we  rise  to  newness  of  life  by  lifting  our  eyes  to  the  cross. 
This  look,  brethren,  will  form  the  subject  of  my  present 
address. 

God,  who  has  given  a  subject^ to  narrate,  has  given  power 
to  look.  This  is  the  beginning,. the  basis  oi'His  work,  while 
ours,  (which,  in  one  sense,  is  also  His,  because  every  thing, 
without  exception,  comes  from  Him,)  is  to  look ;  at  least  this 
is  the  beginning  and  basis  of  our  work.  All  comes  to  thi^s, 
and  is  reared  on  this ;  on  this  all  depends.  We  would  reply 
to  those  who,  by  the  term  faith,  mean  something  less  than 
this,  or  imagine  something  more.  We  would  make  them 
understand  that  men  believe  not  if  they  look  not,  and  that  in 
order  to  have  life  it  is  sufficient  to  look.  May  our  discourse 
prove,  by  the  grace  of  God,  as  simple  as  the  subject  f 
2 


a  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

To  say,  in  absolute  terms,  that  we  are  saved  by  a  look, 
would  be  to  say  that  we  save  ourselves.  Now,  it  is  very 
true  that  salvation  is  accomplished  in  us,  and  that  even,  ac- 
cording to  an  emphatic  expression  of  St.  Paul,  we  accom- 
plish it ;  but  all  its  roots  are  without  us.  First,  there  is  an 
act  which  belongs  throughout  to  God,  an  act  in  which  we  are 
as  nothing :  I  mean  pardon.  God  has  pardoned ;  God  has 
offered  the  hand  of  reconciliation,  and  Jesus  Christ,  who  is 
at  once  God  and  man,  has  come  forward  to  be  surety  for  God 
in  regard  to  men,  and  hostage  for  man  in  regard  to  God. 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  Mediator  of  a  new  covenant,  in  which  the 
heart  of  God  is  fully  manifested ;  a  covenant  bearing  for  its 
seal  and  motto  words  never  heard  before,  God  is  Love.  This 
is  pardon.  It  is  not,  however,  salvation  ;  which,  beginning 
out  of  man,  is  performed  in  him.  Man  is  saved  by  Jesus 
Christ,  inasmuch  as  Jesus  Christ  sanctifies  him.  Man  lost  in 
the  Jirst,  would  not  be  saved  in  the  second  Adam,  did  not  the 
second  become  a  quickening  Spirit,  and  cause  him  to  rise  to 
newness  of  life.  This  resurrection  properly  constitutes  salva- 
tion, and  is,  moreover,  the  work  of  God,  who  is  the  finisher 
of  salvation,  as  he  is  the  founder  of  it.  Man  does  not  resusci- 
tate himself.  It  is  true  the  work  is  not  performed  without  him. 
By  the  good  pleasure  of  God  he  bears  an  active  and  important 
part  in  it,  but  a  part  which  is  very  simple.  All  he  does  is  to 
believe  and  look,  to  look  and  believe.  Whoso  sees  the  Son  and 
believes  in  him  hath  eternal  life.  There  must  be  something  to 
look  at,  and  this  depends  solely  on  God  ;  but  it  is  necessary 
to  look,  and  this  is  the  part  of  man.  The  object  exhibited  to 
our  view  is  of  such  a  nature  and  of  such  virtue  that  when 
looked  at  it  gives  us  life,  just  as  life  was  given  to  those  who 
looked  at  the  serpent  of  Moses. 

The  quickening  power  of  the  eye  of  faith  forms  the  sub- 
ject of  our  remarks. 

We  might  first  speak  generally  of  the  virtue  or  power  of 
sight.     We  might  say  that  it  is  a  shorter  and  livelier  method 


of  acquiring  knowledge  :  that  knowledge,  however,  is  not 
the  only  result ;  because  affection  is  promptly  and  almost 
irresistibly  excited,  when  the  object  is  worthy  of  inspiring  it : 
that,  in  short,  the  eye  is  the  first,  the  readiest,  the  surest  of 
teachers.  It  exhorts,  rebukes,  amends,  reforms,  and  gradu- 
ally begets  a  likeness  to  the  object  which  is  contemplated. 
Hence  example,  when  it  is  uniform  and  well  sustained,  su- 
persedes oral  teaching,  and  constitutes  of  itself  a  complete 
education.  The  man  who  is  permitted  to  see  only  what  is 
true,  and  who  sees  it  distinctly,  is  insensibly  won  over  to  the 
truth.  Of  this  we  are  assured  by  God  himself,  who  has  pro- 
mised in  his  Word  that  in  heaven  we  "  shall  be  like  him,  for 
we  shall  see  him  as  he  is." 

On  this  principle  God  has  founded  his  work  of  mercy  and 
restoration.  It  was  a  look  that  ruined  us  (Gen.  iii.  6),  and 
it  is  by  a  look  that  he  has  been  pleased  to  save  us. 

What,  then,  should  be  the  object  of  this  look  by  which 
the  divine  life,  extinguished  by  sin,  is  to  be  rekindled  in  our 
bosoms  ?  Is  it  on  man  himself  that  man  should  fix  his  eye  ? 
Unquestionably  he  must  look  at  himself,  because  he  cannot 
otherwise  know  himself;  and  when  self-knowledge  is  want- 
ing, all  other  knowledge  is  impossible  or  useless.  But  what 
can  a  look,  o^f  which  man  himself  is  the  object,  avail  for  his 
restoration  ?  If  he  sees  himself  as  he  is  not,  he  is  puffed 
up  ;  if  he  sees  himself  as  he  is,  he  desponds.  Now,  the 
divine  life,  which  is  unison  of  heart  with  God,  cannot  be  pro- 
duced in  the  bosom  of  pride,  nor  exist  in  the  absence  of  hope. 
Flence,  if  man  is  to  find  life,  he  must  find  it  elsewhere  than 
in  a  deceitful  or  sterile  survey  of  himself. 

It  would  seem  then  (does  it  not  ?)  that  man  should  fix  his 
eye  on  God.  What  is  better  fitted,  or  rather  what  else  is 
fitted  to  instruct,  reprove,  heal,  and  raise  up  the  unhappy 
son  of  Adam  ?  But  God  is  vailed.  From  the  thick  clouds 
which  surround  him,  only  thunders    and   lightnings  burst 


4  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

forth.     Above  the  sphere  of  man,  nothing  meets  our  eager, 
anxious  gaze,  but  impenetrable  darkness,  terrific  flames. 

We  must  not  deceive  ourselves.  The  mild,  yet  majestic 
image,  the  very  idea  of  Him  whom  modern  ages  have  learned 
to  style  a  God  of  goodness,  is  not  natural  to  the  imagination 
and  the  intellect  of  man.  The  Gospel  introduced  it  into  our 
minds.     A  God  of  goodness  is  a  God  revealed. 

The  fact,  however  painful,  must  be  avowed.  It  is  not  the 
view  of  God  that  will  engender  a  new  life,  since  this  view  is 
either  forbidden  to  our  eyes,  or  obliges  us  to  shut  them  in 
dismay.     How,  then,  could  man  be  saved  by  it  ? 

Accordingly,  it  is  neither  directly  towards  man  nor  to- 
wards God  that  the  Gospel  invites  us  to  look.     It  is  indeed 

--  towards  God  and  towards  man,  but  towards  both  as  represent- 
ed by  Jesus  Christ  and  united  in  Jesus  Christ. 

In  Jesus  Christ,  in  fact,  we  behold  God  in  the  fulness  of  his 

-  attributes  and  the  accomplishment  of  his  will ;  and  (wonder- 
ful to  tell !)  we  behold  man  at  once  as  he  is,  and  as  he  ought 
to  be.  God,  I  have  said,  in  the  fulness  of  his  attributes;  for 
it  has  pleased  him  that  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  should 
dwell  in  Christ,  in  whom  he  has  for  the  first  time  revealed  to 
the  world  the  immensity  of  his  love.  Man,  I  have  said,  as 
he  is  and  as  he  ought  to  be ;  the  former  intimated  by  the  in- 

*"  dignities  and  sufferings  of  Christ,  which  furnish  the  measure 
of  man's  guilt,  and  the  latter  realized  in  the  holiness  of  Christ, 
who,  perfectly  fulfilling  the  law  in  thought,  word,  and  deed, 
has  far  surpassed  the  innocence  of  the  first  Adam.  Such, 
brethren,  is  the  object  which  the  Gospel  presents  to  our  view. 
But  there  is  in  this  object  a  central  point,  a  finishing  stroke, 
which  exhibits  the  whole,  gives  it  all  its  power  over  our 
souls,  and  causes  the  look  which  we  fix  upon  it  to  become 
the  principle  and  nourishment  of  a  new  moral  life.  This 
central  point,  this  finishing  stroke,  is  the  crucifixion.  Accom- 
panying you  straight  to  this  bloody  centre,  we  understand  the 
feeling  of  St.  Paul,  when  he  declared  his  determination  to 


LOOKING.  5 

know  nothing  among  his  proselytes  but  "  Jesus  Christ,  and 
him  crucified." 

Jesus  Christ  may  be  compared  to  a  mountain,  from  the 
top  of  wliich  the  eye  takes  in  the  whole  extent  of  the  country, 
and  reaches  to  its  utmost  limits.  At  the  very  first  platform 
which  you  reach  in  your  ascent,  your  eye  carries  you  farther 
than  it  did  at  the  base,  and  every  step  enlarges  your  hori- 
zon ;  but  if  you  would  take  in  the  whole  view,  you  must 
climb  to  the  very  summit.  There  you  see  all  that  you  saw 
from  a  lower  level,  and  you  see,  moreover,  what  could  not 
be  seen  any  where  else.  Now,  the  highest  summit  of  Jesus 
Christ,  if  we  may  so  speak,  is  Jesus  Christ  crucified.  From 
the  highest  we  see  all  that  can  be  seen  and  know  all  that  can 
be  known.  The  view  which  we  enjoy  at  this  high  elevation 
combines  and  comprehends  the  whole.  If  we  would  know 
what  man  is,  where  can  we  learn  better  than  from  the 
unutterable  horror  of  that  death  in  which  extremity  of  pain 
is  aggravated  by  extremity  of  disgrace,  while  ingratitude 
and  treachery  wring  out  their  bitter  draught  into  the  cup  of 
sorrows ;  that  death  to  which  both  honor  and  commiseration 
are  denied,  and  from  which  God  himself  turns  away  and 
withdraws  his  consolations  ?  If  it  is  because  of  man  that  a 
being  perfectly  righteous  suffers  all  these  things,  say  what 
is  man  ;  how  desperate  must  be  his  disease,  and  yet  how 
great  his  dignity  and  primeval  excellence  !  Even  in  the 
view  of  God  what  must  that  being  be,  for  whom  God  himself 
has  consented  to  die  ?     Behold  then  and  say.  Here  is  man ! 

If  we  would  know  man,  not  as  he  is,  but  as  he  should 
and  as  he  may  be,  where  shall  we  learn  better  than  from 
that  cross  on  which  a  righteous  man,  (a  man,  be  it  remem- 
bered,) dies  for  unrighteous  men  ;  and  on  which  a  human 
soul  displays  all  that  man  has  ever  been  able  to  conceive, 
but  never  able  to  realize,  self-denial,  magnanimity,  meekness, 
moral  power — than  from  that  death  which  contrasted  with 
the  most  generous  deaths  of  which  history  makes  mention, 


6  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

leaves  them  far  behind,  even  those  of  them  which  it  has 
itself  inspired  ?     Behold  again,  and  say.  Here  is  man  ! 

Is  this  enough  ?  No,  it  is  God  himself  that  you  must 
see  and  know.  The  sight  of  the  cross  has  humbled  you. 
This  I  admit.  It  has  elevated  your  moral  sense,  and  given 
you  a  perception  of  your  primitive  destination  and  reasona- 
ble service.  This  too  I  admit.  But  these  preparatory 
stones  would  for  ever  have  been  stones  on  which  nothing 
could  be  built,  had  God  continued  to  be  an  unknown  God,  a 
God  to  whom  you  could  not  without  hesitation  have  offered 
your  respect  and  love,  and  in  seeking  whom  your  respect 
and  love  must  have  perished  by  the  way. 

But  in  the  death  of  his  Son  He  unvails  a  countenance 
full  of  mercy  and  of  majesty ;  He  exhibits  himself  as  a 
living  God,  into  whose  hand  it  is  no  longer  terrible  but  de- 
lightful to  fall ;  in  one  word,  as  a  Father  who  was  always  a 
Father,  but  now  at  length  openly  declares  it.  In  like  man- 
man  He  was  always  holy  ;  but  did  you  ever  know,  had  you 
ever  formed  even  an  idea  of  the  holiness  of  God,  up  to  the 
moment  when  God,  in  order  to  secure  men  from  sin,  con- 
sented that  his  spotless  Son  should  suffer  such  contradiction 
and  indignity  from  sinful  men !  Till  then  did  you  under- 
stand that  sin  and  suffering  go  hand  in  hand,  cannot  be  sep- 
arated,  and  are,  so  to  speak,  one  and  the  same  ?  A  look,  a 
single  look,  tells  you  all  this,  teaches  5^ou  all  that  you  ought 
to  learn,  rids  you  of  all  fears  but  the  fear  of  doing  evil,  gives 
you  at  once  a  master  and  a  father,  assures  you  of  a  friend 
and  intercessor  in  heaven,  dissipates  all  the  mists  of  doubt, 
unriddles  the  enigma  of  life,  and  enables  you  to  cast  the 
anchor  of  a  joyful  hope  beyond  the  grave. 

This  internal  revolution  penetrates  to  the  inmost  recesses 
of  the  soul,  removing  that  load  of  remorse  and  despair,  the 
weight  of  which  was  oppressive  and  almost  stifling.  The 
Lord  has  said,  "  I  will  shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and 
the  sea  and  the  dry  land ;  and  I  will  shake  all  nations,  and 


LOOKING.  7 

the  desire  of  all  nations  shall  come."  Hag.  ii.  6,  7.  Yes, 
he  will  shake  the  heavens  that  he  may  thereby  ehake  the 
earth,  that  is  to  say  the  heart  of  man.  Surely  that  which 
subverts  the  heavens  may  well  make  a  thorough  subversion 
in  the  heart  of  man  ;  and  when  God  has  recourse  to  violence 
in  order  to  conquer  back  his  creature,  we  may  rest  assured 
that  the  creature  undergoes  some  violent  and  decisive  change, 
is  brought  to  a  dreadful  yet  blessed  crisis  which  issues  in  re- 
covery and  life.  Either  say  that  the  restoration  of  man  is  be- 
yond the  power,  and  that  the  very  attempt  to  restore  him  is  be- 
yond the  love  of  God  ;  or  say  that  this  was  the  heroic,  the 
infallible  mean,  in  other  words,  that  the  redemption  of  man 
was  the  sure  and  probably  the  only  method  of  saving  him : 
if  it  is  true,  as  we  again  repeat,  that  he  cannot  be  saved 
without  being  regenerated.  And  now  in  order  that  this  may 
be  accomplished,  what  has  he  to  do  but  look  ?  As  Moses 
lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  so  must  the  Son  of 
man  be  lifted  up.  Every  one  which  seeth  the  Son,  hath 
everlasting  life.     John  vi.  40. 

Such  is  according  to  Scripture,  and  such  we  may  add  is 
according  to  the  testimony  of  experience,  the  plan  of  God 
for  your  salvation.  Your  salvation  is  not  accomplished  out 
of  you,  or  without  you ;  you  cannot  be  saved  if  you  are  not 
changed,  and  you  cannot  be  changed,  in  other  words,  regen- 
erated, without  being  thereby  saved.  Your  salvation  is  not 
your  work.  Begun  in  God,  it  is  finished  in  you ;  and  it  is 
in  regard  to  these  two  phases,  these  two  grand  acts  of  mercy, 
that  the  Gospel  calls  Jesus  Christ  the  author  and  finisher  of 
salvation,  a  salvation  the  completion  of  which  consists  en- 
tirely in  the  moral  effects  which  we  have  just  been  tracing. 

If  you  remind  us  that  another  element  must  be  taken 
into  account,  viz.,  inward  grace,  that  power  of  the  Spirit 
which  acts  upon  the  spirit  of  man,  and  is  the  active  principle 
of  his  regeneration,  just  as  regeneration  is  itself  the  condi- 
tion, not  to  say  the  very  essence  of  salvation ;  we  reply  that 


8  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

this  is  also  our  opinion,  but  that  grace,  a  mysterious  opera- 
tion, the  internal  processes  of  which  escape  our  view,  accom- 
plishes its  end  only  by  instilling  into  our  hearts  that  joy, 
gratitude,  hope,  and  love,  which  together  constitute  the  char- 
acter of  the  new  creature,  and  which  though  supernatural  in 
one  sense,  are  natural  in  another,  being  in  exact  correspond- 
ence with  the  facts  which  the  cross  reveals.  How  neces- 
sary soever  grace  may  be,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  it  does 
not  act  alone,  that  it  does  not  act  without  the  co-operation  of 
those  facts ;  and  that  it  is  equally  true  to  say,  either  that 
these  facts  regenerate  us  through  grace,  or  that  grace  regen- 
erates us  through  them.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  grace, 
it  is  certain  that  he  only  who  sees  the  Son  has  everlasting 
life,  and  that  this  sight  to  which  we  are  led  and  determined 
by  Divine  grace,  is  sufficient  for  salvation.  Inasmuch  then 
as  grace  makes  us  capable  of  looking,  we  are  saved  by  a 
look  directed  to  the  cross. 

Here  we  encounter  two  objections,  bearing  upon  the  two 
principal  terms  of  the  proposition  which  has  just  been  an- 
nounced. Is  the  cross  the  only  object  to  which  we  are  to 
look  ?     Is  this  look  a  simple  act  of  looking,  and  nothing  more  ? 

We  mean  not  to  say,  brethren,  that  the  only  thing  of 
importance  in  Jesus  Christ  is  his  cross,  and  that  we  are  to 
look  to  it  alone,  to  the  neglect  of  every  thing  else.  Christ 
Jesus  did  not  come  into  the  world  exclusively  for  the  pur- 
pose of  dying.  He  taught,  he  performed  miracles,  he  lived 
in  the  different  relations  of  human  life  :  and  the  Gospel,  by 
not  confining  its  narrative  to  his  death,  invites  us  to  study 
and  venerate  Jesus  Christ  in  all  his  capacities.  We  know, 
and  are  careful  not  to  forget  how  it  pleased  the  Father  that  in 
him  all  fulness  should  dwell,  and  that  he  has  been  made  of 
God  unto  us,  not  redemption  merely,  but  wisdom,  and  right- 
eousness, and  sanctification.  Still  Jesus  Christ  could  not 
have  become  our  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sanctifica- 
tion, except  by  becoming  our  redemption.     And  what  is  the 


LOOKING.  9 

connection  between  these  and  redemption  ?  In  what  way- 
does  redemption  produce  the  others,  or  make  them  possible, 
and  become  itself  an  effectual  and  complete  redemption  ? 
The  whole  process,  brethren,  consists  in  fixing  our  eye  upon 
redemption,  upon  the  Redeemer,  upon  Christ  crucified. 

Suppose  you  retain  every  thing  of  Jesus  Christ  but  his 
sacrifice :  leave  him  all  his  purity,  all  his  wisdom,  and,  in 
so  far  as  it  is  possible  while  excluding  his  sacrifice,  leave 
him  all  his  love ;  I  maintain  that  even  in  regard  to  his 
other  properties  it  cannot  be  said  when  the  cross  is  suppress- 
ed that  all  fulness  dwells  in  him,  or  that  he  has  been  made 
unto  us  either  wisdom  or  righteousness,  or  sanctification ; 
and,  on  the  contrary,  that  he  will  leave  you  essentially,  and 
to  all  intents,  just  as  you  are.  t  maintain  that  you  cannot 
avail  yourself  of  these  qualities ;  that  you  cannot  discern 
and  recognize  them,  except  by  the  light  of  the  cross,  seeing 
that  it  is  this  light  alone  which  enables  us  to  read  the  sacred 
characters  in  which  all  these  truths  are  imprinted  in  the 
Gospel.  I  go  farther,  and  maintain  that  this  wisdom, 
righteousness,  and  sanctification,  indispensable  conditions  of 
eternal  life,  and  sacred  earnests  of  our  inheritance,  are  in 
germ  and  principle  included  in  faith  in  the  work  of  redemp- 
tion, or,  if  you  will,  in  the  look  with  which  we  fasten  upon 
this  work.  I  maintain  that  they  come  forth  from  it  sponta- 
neously, just  as  the  blade  sends  forth  the  stalk,  and  the  stalk 
the  grain  ;  that  in  the  soul  whose  look  is  fixed  upon  the 
cross  there  exists  a  beginning  of  wisdom,  a  beginning  of 
righteousness,  a  beginning  of  sanctification ;  and  that  in 
proportion  as  the  believer's  work  is  so  fixed,  the  spiritual 
life,  under  the  three  forms  which  the  above  terms  imply, 
grows  and  is  silently  developed  in  his  breast.  I  hold  that 
where  this  look  is  not,  there  is  no  Christian ;  and  that  where 
it  is,  it  by  itself  alone  constitutes  the  Christian. 

He  who  looks  not  to  this  fact  of  Christ  crucified,  he  who 
neglects  it  in  order  to  devote  himself  (so  at  least  he  imagines) 
2* 


10  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

to  what  is  primary  and  essential,  makes  it  only  the  more 
certain  that  he  will  miss  the  end  at  which  he  aims.  He  is 
bent  on  the  application  !  The  application  of  what,  pray  ? 
His  object  is  life,  but  where  is  life,  except  in  believing  in 
Him  whom  the  Father  has  sent  ?  He  says,  perhaps,  that  ha 
is  unwilling  to  dwell  on  a  true  but  idle  speculation.  He  will 
quit  mystery  to  secure  perspicuity,  doctrine  to  cultivate 
morality.  Is  it  his  wish  then  to  plant  a  tree  without  roots, 
or  is  he  contented  that  his  vine  though  watered  by  the 
purest  blood  of  the  universe,  shall  notwithstanding  bring 
forth  only  wild  grapes  ?  What !  Is  the  incarnation  an  un- 
important fact  ?  If  this  fact  be  suppressed,  and  it  is  sup- 
pressed if  we  do  not  contemplate  it,  shall  we  have  the  same 
morality,  evangelical  morality,  the  same  spirit,  the  spirit  of 
holiness  ?  On  the  contrary,  it  is  evident  that  in  the  Gospel 
we  shall  only  have  a  new,  and  that  scarcely  an  improved 
edition  of  the  ancient  systems  of  morality.  I  say  scarcely 
improved,  for  if  it  should  appear  in  some  respects  more 
correct,  in  others  it  would  seem  obscure,  extravagant,  and 
impracticable.  It  would  be  like  a  book  filled  with  myste- 
rious allusions,  for  the  interpretation  of  which  it  would  be 
necessary  to  have  a  key,  and  there  is  no  other  key  but  the 
cross.  What  then  could  be  done  but  throw  aside  all  that  is 
obscure,  all  that  is  spiritual,  all  that  appears  eccentric,  when 
no  centre  is  seen ;  to  discard  the  commands  enjoining  us  to 
bear  the  cross,  to  take  the  kingdom  by  violence,  to  hate 
father  and  mother,  to  die  to  oneself,  to  pray  without  ceasing? 
In  a  word,  what  could  we  do  but  sink  down  to  the  level  of 
natural  morality,  while  uttering  sacred  names,  appealing  to 
venerable  recollections,  and  celebrating  without  understand- 
ing, as  without  true  heartfelt  assent,  and  consequently 
without  true  faith,  rites  in  which,  as  our  morality  and  our 
lives  would  abundantly  show,  we  were  unable  to  perceive 
any  meaning  ? 

It  will  not  do  to  say.  This  truth,  like  many  others,  is  in 


LOOKING.  11 

the  Gospel.  It  will  not  even  do  to  say,  This  truth  is  the 
most  important  in  the  Gospel.  What  you  must  say  is,  This 
truth  is  the  Gospel  itself,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  Gospel  is 
only  the  form,  the  transcript,  or  the  application  of  it.  This 
truth  is  present  in  every  part  of  the  Gospel,  just  as  the  blood 
is  present  in  every  part  of  the  human  body.  To  him  who 
comprehends  this  capital  truth,  every  thing  recalls,  every 
thing  reproduces  it.  Even  where  another  person  would 
never  suspect  its  presence,  he  sees  and  feels  it.  On  what- 
ever side  he  looks,  into  whatever  details  he  enters,  to  what- 
ever application  he  directs  his  view,  he  meets  and  recognizes 
the  cross.  How  indeed  should  he  miss  it  in  any  part  of  a 
book,  or  of  a  religion,  of  which  the  cross  is  the  proper 
subject  ? 

Jesus  Christ  came  not  merely  to  teach  morality  at  the 
risk  of  his  life,  at  the  price  of  his  blood.  He  came  not  mere- 
ly to  preach  practical  truths,  which  we  never  would  have 
forgotten  if  we  had  not  forgotten  God,  and  which  we  shall 
easily  recover  as  soon  as  we  return  to  God.  These  truths, 
the  truths  I  mean  which  characterize  the  morality  of  the 
Gospel,  are  of  such  a  nature  that  Jesus  Christ  could  not 
publish  them  to  any  useful  purpose  unless  he  counterbalanced 
their  fearful  requirements  by  revealing  God  as  a  God  of  mer- 
cy, and  exhibiting  a  pledge  of  his  willingness  to  pardon  in 
the  humiliation  and  sacrifice  of  his  beloved  Son.  It  is  not  to 
the  publication  of  these  moral  maxims,  nor  to  the  attention 
which  we  can  give  to  them  while  isolating  them  from  the 
person  and  work  of  their  great  Promulgator  that  our  salva- 
tion is  directly  attached.  It  is  attached,  above  all,  to  the  in- 
carnation of  Christ,  to  his  humiliation,  and  sufferings,  and 
death,  and,  consequently,  to  the  believing  look  which  places 
all  these  wonders  within  our  reach,  and  makes  them,  so  to 
speak,  our  own. 

True,  when  once  we  have  accepted  the  grand  dispensa- 
tion of  the  divine  clemency,  it  is  proper  and  it  is  useful  to 


12  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

study  those  instructions  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  of  which 
it  is  certain  that  we  henceforth  possess  the  key ;  but  at  all 
times  it  is  necessary  in  reading  these  maxims  to  draw  near 
to  a  dying  Saviour  as  to  a  torch,  which  enables  us,  the  near- 
er we  approach  it,  to  read  the  more  easily.  It  is  under  the 
active  influence,  in  the  presence,  and  as  it  were  within  the 
immediate  sphere  of  this  great  truth ;  it  is  when  surrounded 
by  its  light,  and  warmed  by  its  heat,  that  every  thing  addi- 
tional which  the  Gospel  contains  should  be  studied.  Is  it  too 
much  to  say  that  this  morality  ought  to  be  transcribed  on  the 
very  cross  of  Christ,  so  that  we  may  be  able  to  read  the  one 
without  withdrawing  our  eyes  from  the  other?  But  has  it 
not  been  written  there  already  ?  Is  not  Calvary  a  new  Si- 
nai ?  Is  not  the  cross  the  new  table  of  a  new  Moses  ?  And 
without  turning  our  view  from  that  tree,  at  once  cursed  and 
holy ;  without  taking  our  eye  for  a  single  instant  off  Him 
whom  our  sins  have  nailed  to  it,  may  we  not  read,  as  in  a  new 
decalogue,  an  abridgment  and  summary  of  that  new  law, 
and  the  laws  and  constitution  of  that  new  people  whom  he 
came  to  gather  out  of  every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people, 
and  nation  ? 

No,  the  cross  is  not  only  the  torch  by  whose  light  we  read 
instruction  which  has  been  deposited  elsewhere ;  it  is  itself 
full  of  instruction.  Let  us  attend  for  a  moment  to  the  lessons 
of  the  cross. 

The  Saviour  had  not  waited  till  his  crucifixion  to  teach 
great  truths.  What  sublime  lessons  had  not  he,  in  whom 
are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  (Col.  ii. 
3),  delivered  in  the  course  of  his  ministry  !  What  lessons 
on  the  holiness  and  inviolability  of  the  divine  law,  which 
aims  at  nothing  short  of  perfection,  and  of  which  not  one  iota 
can  fail !  What  lessons  on  the  misery  of  man  in  all  those 
solemn  passages  which  declare,  that  unless  a  man  be  born 
again  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  that  whoso  be- 
lieveth  not  the  Son  of  God,  in  other  words,  does  not  cast  him- 


LOOKING.  13 

self  on  the  free  mercy  of  the  Father,  is  by  anticipation,  is 
already  irremediably  condemned,  the  wrath  of  the  Father 
abiding  on  him  !  What  a  demonstration  of  this  divine  mercy 
is  the  mere  spectacle  of  the  Mediator  suspended  on  the  ac- 
cursed tree,  offering  a  sacrifice  which,  to  avail  those  who  are 
at  once  the  objects  and  the  authors  of  it,  asks  only  to  be 
believed  and  accepted  !  What  would  all  these  lessons  be 
without  the  corresponding  facts  ?  Instead  of  saying  that  the 
facts  confirm  the  words,  we  should  rather  say  that  the  words 
confirm  the  facts.  The  instruction  is  in  the  facts,  and  there 
only  could  it  be.  Who  would  ever  have  believed  in  the 
holiness  of  the  law  but  for  this  bloody  satisfaction  ?  or  in  the 
deep-seated  disease  of  human  nature,  but  for  the  violence  of 
the  remedy  ?  or  in  the  greatness  of  the  mercy,  but  for  such 
a  sacrifice  ?  Who,  but  for  this,  would  ever  have  understood 
our  strict  accountability  to  God  ? — how  completely  we  must 
die  to  ourselves  that  we  may  truly  live  ? — how  strongly  we 
are  bound  to  all  the  creatures  of  God  ? — how  far  we  ought  to 
carry  our  devotedness  and  charity  towards  all  men  ?  In  re- 
gard to  all  these  subjects,  how  are  we  to  be  enlightened  ? 
By  a  ray  of  the  sun,  or  by  a  clap  of  thunder  ?  By  both  at 
once,  for  the  cross  is  both.  The  flash  of  light,  vivid  and 
terrific  though  it  be,  comes  only  from  the  cross.  With  re- 
ference to  all  these  truths,  what  man  required  was  facts. 
He  needed  not  to  hear  but  to  see ;  and,  until  he  had  seen, 
there  is  nothing  that  might  have  been  said  to  him  which  he 
would  have  been  able  to  understand.  Jesus  the  victim  be- 
hooved to  accredit  Jesus  the  teacher  :  the  priest  behooved  to 
introduce  the  prophet. 

In  regard  to  lessons  from  example,  the  life  of  Jesus  was 
full  of  them  ;  and  here  I  may  take  occasion  to  observe,  that 
his  whole  life  was  a  passion,  a  prolonged  death,  of  which  the 
cross  was  only  the  culminating  point  and  consecration.  But 
if  the  life  of  Jesus,  supposing  it  to  have  come  to  a  natural 
and  peaceful  end,  must  have  appeared  to  us  the  fairest  of 


14  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

lives,  how  noble  is  the  crown  which  it  receives  from  its  con- 
cluding scenes  !  We  formerly  observed  how  greatly  a  con- 
stant view  of  goodness  and  justice,  when  accompanied  with 
the  arguments  of  reason  and  other  influential  motives,  may 
contribute  to  render  us  gradually  good  and  just.  Now  all 
the  virtues  of  the  holy  life  of  Jesus  are  here  carried  to  their 
utmost  height,  and  collected  as  it  were  in  a  single  point  under 
a  single  view.  Apart  from  all  the  circumstances  which 
render  it  sublime,  and  which  brightly  manifest  a  God  in  a 
dying  man,  this  death,  formally  announced,  foreseen  with  all 
its  bitter  ingredients,  all  its  insults  and  all  its  sorrows,  yet 
calmly  awaited  and  voluntarily  endured,  is  the  last  and 
lofliest  expression  of  obedience,  fidelity,  devotedness.  Hu- 
man nature,  which  always  possessed  within  itself  the  ideal 
)f  spotless  love,  still  waited  for  the  realization  of  it,  but  no 
.onger  waits  since  the  day  of  the  crucifixion.  For,  as  an 
apostle  has  said.  Herein  is  love,  that  Christ  laid  down  his  life 
for  us.  How  will  this  generous  death  appear  if,  instead  of 
considering  it  as  a  kind  of  naked  abstraction,  we  invest  it 
with  all  the  circumstances  which  distinguish  it  from  all  other 
deaths ;  if  we  contemplate  it  in  those  inimitable  features  of 
majesty  and  tenderness,  of  compassion  and  authority,  which 
convert  this  cross  into  a  throne,  a  judgment-seat,  an  asylum, 
and  constrain  us,  after  eighteen  centuries,  to  exclaim  with 
the  centurion,  "  Surely  this  was  the  Son  of  God  !"  Matt. 
xxvii.  54. 

Let  us  leave  to  our  divine  Mediator  all  that  he  cannot 
communicate  to  us.  His  divinity  belongs  only  to  himself; 
but  his  humanity  is  ours !  The  virtues  which  he  displays 
upon  the  cross  are  in  their  perfection  human  virtues.  They 
are  for  our  own  use,  and  are  proposed  for  our  imitation. 
These  examples  form  part  of  our  inheritance.  But  his  whole 
life  bore  the  same  character  as  his  death.  From  the  first 
day  when  the  Gospel  narrative  brings  him  before  us  he 
was,  without  intermission,  faithful,  obedient,  patient,  charita- 


.  LOOKING.  15 

ble.  But  this  was  not  enough.  Even  by  way  of  example 
this  death,  with  all  its  peculiar  features,  was  indispensable. 
Without  it  the  virtues  of  Jesus  might  have  been  supposed  to 
have  limits.  His  example,  though  perfect  in  itself,  remained 
imperfect,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  from  want  of  a  perfect 
sphere  of  action.  We  knew  not  all  the  virtues  which  the 
human  soul  is  called  to  display,  but  we  know  them  now. 
Jesus  Christ  informs  us.  Without  the  cross,  he  could  not 
have  done  so. 

Was  it  necessary,  in  fine,  that  in  addition  to  instruction 
and  example,  we  should  receive  something  else  from  Jesus 
Christ ;  or  were  instruction  and  example  sujfficient  ?  You, 
brethren,  know  well  that  they  would  have  served  only  to 
render  our  condemnation  more  inevitable,  if,  while  fully 
demonstrating  the  truth,  they  had  not  united  us  to  the  truth. 
How  could  we  have  expected  this  union,  this  change  of  heart 
and  nature,  from  the  mere  influence  of  instruction  and  exam- 
ple ?  It  would  be  to  form  a  very  feeble,  a  very  false  idea  of 
the  conversion  of  the  heart,  to  imagine  that  the  finest  exam- 
ples, and  the  gravest  lessons,  are  able  to  convert  any  indi- 
vidual whatever.  If  conversion  is  at  once  a  death  and  a 
birth,  the  death  of  the  old  man,  and  the  birth  of  a  new  man  ; 
if  conversion  is  in  principle  and  in  fact  a  victory  over  the 
world,  over  the  pleasures,  the  opinions,  the  prejudices,  the 
wisdom,  the  virtues  of  the  world,  over  what  is  honorable  and 
specious,  as  much  as  over  what  is  ignoble  and  is  disavowed  by 
the  world  ;  if  conversion,  rendering  us  blind  to  things  visible, 
and  giving  us  eyes  to  discern  things  invisible,  makes  us  use 
the  world  as  not  using  it,  and  be  of  the  world  as  not  being  of 
it ;  in  one  word,  makes  us  strangers  on  the  earth  by  con- 
vincing us  that  so  we  are  by  origin  and  destiny  :  if  conver- 
sion is  all  this,  and  nothing  less,  it  supposes  so  complete  and 
serious  an  abjuration  of  all  the  principles  of  the  natural 
man,  an  abjuration  not  merely  of  his  vices,  but  of  his  vir- 
tues ;  it  supposes  such  a  general,  unreserved,  and  unquali- 


16  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

fied  sacrifice,  without  any  expected  recompense  from  God 
excepting  God  himself,  that  it  would  be  absolutely  irrational 
to  attribute  to  any  instruction  and  example,  of  what  kind 
soever,  the  power  of  producing  a  revolution  so  thorough 
and  fundamental.  Now  we  cannot  doubt  that  this  revo- 
lution has  taken  place  in  several  individuals,  and  even  in 
a  large  number,  if  to  those  who  are  personally  known  to  us, 
we  add  those  whose  character  and  conduct  has  been  attested 
to  us  by  irrefragable  testimony.  Society,  moreover,  has, 
after  its  own  manner,  undergone  this  revolution.  Not  to 
enter  into  further  detail,  the  most  civilized  nations  have  as- 
sumed the  arms  of  Christ,  sealed  with  them  their  treaties 
and  their  laws,  and  stamped  them  on  their  customs  and  man- 
ners. In  good  earnest,  do  you  think  that  he  in  honor  of 
whom,  and  at  whose  call,  the  world  changed  its  laws,  its 
manners,  and  spirit,  and  has  for  eighteen  centuries,  notwith- 
standing the  obstacles  raised  up  by  enemies  and  corrupters, 
followed  the  same  invariable  direction — do  you  think  that  he 
was  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  only  the  first  of  sages,  and  the 
first  of  virtuous  men  ?  No  !  he  was  the  Crucified  !  No  !  he 
was  the  Redeemer !  Before  no  less  than  He,  could  eighteen 
centuries  come  in  succession  and  offer  homage.  To  depict 
on  their  standards,  to  erect  upon  their  palaces,  to  engrave 
upon  their  public  seals,  the  image  of  an  infamous  execution, 
it  was  necessary  that  he  who  endured  it  should  in  their  eyes 
be  something  more  than  the  devoted  friend  of  man.  He  be- 
hooved to  be  a  Redeemer.  More  than  a  martyr,  he  behooved 
to  be  a  God.  Efface  from  the  Gospel,  I  say  not  the  cross, 
but  the  evangelical  signification  of  the  cross,  and  you  render 
those  eighteen  centuries  absurd  or  impossible.  But  you  will 
not  do  so.  For  who  among  you,  even  though  not  com- 
prehending it,  even  though  not  consenting  to  it,  is  not  con- 
strained to  admit  that  nothing  could  have  determined  so 
many  successive  generations  to  make  a  cross  the  symbol  of 
their  faith  and  their  civilization,  but  the  fact  that  they  saw  in 


LOOKING.  17 

it  a  Redeemer,  and  in  the  Redeemer,  considered  as  such,  all 
religious  truth  ;  the  last  communication  from  God  in  regard 
to  himself,  and  in  regard  to  man  ?  We  should  not  fear  to 
say  it.  It  is  long  since  but  for  this  the  Gospel  would  not 
have  been  spoken  of  in  the  world,  if  indeed  it  would  have 
ever  been.  It  is  not  so  much  the  Gospel  that  has  preserved 
the  doctrine  of  the  cross,  as  the  doctrine  of  the  cross  that  has 
preserved  the  Gospel. 

As  from  the  hand  of  God  alone,  the  earth  with  all  the 
heavenly  bodies  could  receive  the  primary  inexhaustible  im- 
pulse which  has  caused  it  for  thousands  of  years  to  circle 
round  the  sun  in  an  immense  orbit,  with  a  velocity  which, 
always  uniform,  measures  out  our  years  and  ages  ;  so  it  was 
by  Christ,  but  by  Christ  dying,  that  man  and  man's  nature 
could  be  launched  into  those  new  orbits  which  make  them 
traverse  beyond  the  sphere  of  the  world,  a  sphere  which  is 
spiritual  and  divine.  All  the  might,  all  the  reality  of  Chris- 
tianity in  each  Christian,  is  there  and  only  there.  Even  the 
lessons  and  example  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  order  to  become  liv- 
ing and  fruitful,  require  a  ray  darted  from  the  cross.  Till 
then  their  bearing  is  questionable,  their  meaning  is  uncer- 
tain ;  they  signify  only  what  we  make  them  signify.  Their 
virtues  become  fixed,  precise,  and  absolute,  only  from  the 
moment  that  this  ray,  or  shall  I  say  this  luminous  look  of 
Christ  crucified,  makes  all  his  lineaments  and  features  to 
stand  forth  distinctly  in  relief.  Above  all,  it  is  then  only 
that  the  soul  proceeds  resolutely  to  observe  those  lessons,  and 
follow  those  examples.  When  disembarking  on  the  shore  of 
the  land  she  is  to  conquer,  then  only,  if  we  may  so  speak, 
does  she  set  fire  to  her  ships,  and  so  cut  olT  all  means  of  re- 
treat towards  the  country  which  she  has  left.  Determination, 
strength,  and  life,  are  only  there  ;  because  from  the  cross 
only,  and  not  from  mere  lessons  or  examples  spring  up  peren- 
nial streams  of  joy  and  love.  I  say  joy  and  love,  which, 
like  two  currents  of  air  from  different  points  of  the  horizon, 


18  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

unite  and  form  a  single  gale  which  wafts  the  soul  to  God. 
But  if  it  is  not  love  without  joy,  neither  is  it  joy  without  love. 
For  if  joy  is  the  conditionof  activity,  love  is  the  condition  of 
divine  activity  and  life.  No  doubt  that  which  draws  and 
fixes  our  look  on  Jesus  crucified  is  the  joy  of  finding  our  sal- 
vation in  him  ;  but  that  which  truly  makes  us  find  our  sal- 
vation in  him,  that  which  in  this  view  accomplishes  our  sal- 
vation, is  not  joy,  but  the  love  which  meets  our  view  in  the 
presence,  or  more  properly  at  the  feet,  of  divine  love. 

We  do  not  come  here,  brethren,  to  preach  up  the  con- 
templative life  ;  we  have  better  work  to  do.  But  we  are  en- 
titled, by  the  example  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  invite  you  to  con- 
templation. The  joy  of  salvation  is  necessary,  I  admit,  to 
set  enchained  love  at  liberty  in  our  hearts ;  but  the  chain 
once  broken,  what  have  we  to  do  but  leave  it  to  take  its 
flight,  and  quench  its  thirst,  and  incessantly  obtain  new 
vigor,  by  contemplating  the  most  perfect  form  of  love  ?  Ah! 
would  that  man  could  but  for  once  forget  himself;  that  he 
could  for  some  moments,  at  least,  find  all  his  happiness  in 
admiration,  enthusiasm,  and  tenderness!  Would  that  he 
could  say  to  himself  not  only,  Jesus  saved  me,  Jesus  loved 
me,  but  Jesus  is  salvation,  Jesus  is  love  !  Would'  that  he 
could  sometimes,  in  this  love  which  is  salvation,  forget  that 
it  is  salvation,  and  in  love  see  nothing  but  love  ! 

After  all,  what  is  it  that  elevates  the  human  soul  to  the 
utmost  height  which  it  is  permitted  to  attain  ?  What  is  it 
that  makes  it,  according  to  an  Apostle,  "  partaker  of  the  di- 
vine nature?"  2  Pet.  i.  4.  It  is  not  joy;  it  is  love.  Joy 
reanimates  and  elevates  it,  joy  conducts  it  towards  love.  I 
say  more,  (for  it  were  heresy  not  to  take  our  weaknes  into 
account,)  joy  comes  to  the  assistance  of  love  in  hours  of  faint- 
ing, which  would  otherwise  prove  mortal.  It  is  for  this,  and 
nothing  but  this,  that  joy  is  good.  Love  is  the  end,  the  final 
course  of  j'oy  :  love  alone  is  life.  You  may  judge  by  analo- 
gy.    What  are  the  happy  moments  in  a  man's  life  ?     The 


LOOKING.  19 

sublime  moments  !  those  I  mean  in  which  the  soul  eagerly 
unites  itself  by  admiration  or  sympathy  to  what  is  good, 
great,  and  generous.  It  feels  that  these  moments  if  prolonged, 
that  admiration  if  freed  from  all  mixture,  would  have  consti- 
tuted supreme  felicity.  The  soul  is  completely  happy  only 
when  in  union  with  its  principle  it  forgets  itself;  when  merged 
in  its  principle  it  becomes,  in  regard  to  the  God  whom  it 
loves,  only  a  miror,  an  altar,  or  an  echo.  Too  often  the 
gravest  speculations,  the  speculations  worthiest  of  a  Chris- 
tian, tend  to  occupy  us  too  much  with  ourselves.  Those  me- 
ditations, those  discussions  on  free  will,  on  assurance,  on  the 
connection  between  faith  and  works,  and  even  on  the  proper- 
ties of  faith,  mix  us  too  much  up  with  our  subject,  and  give 
too  strong  a  hold  to  that  vivacious  self-interest  which  catches 
at  and  clings  to  every  thing.  The  look  directed  towards  Je- 
sus, and  this  look  only,  has  an  opposite  tendency.  In  propor- 
tion as  it  is  prolonged,  it  inspires  our  soul  with  a  holy  enthusi- 
asm, a  holy  love.  It  makes  those  dispositions  habitual  or  do- 
minant in  our  heart.  It  becomes  at  once  the  light  and  the  heat 
of  our  life.  It  facilitates,  simplifies,  illumines  all.  It  does 
better  than  refute  doubts,  it  absorbs  them.  In  its  brightness 
all  their  equivocal  or  false  glimmerings  are  quenched.  It  bids 
away  frivolous  questions,  discards  subtleties,  creates  a  tri- 
umphant evidence,  and  transports  us  by  anticipation  into  the 
light  of  heaven,  putting  under  our  feet  all  the  clouds  which 
hung  over  our  heads. 

That  which  creates  and  sustains  this  life,  at  the  same 
time  regulates  it.  The  feeling  of  strength  ever  fading  and 
imperfect,  easily  engenders  pride  and  rashness ;  but  all  the 
treasures  of  wisdom  are  comprehended  in  this  light  of  the 
cross.  It  does  not  give  us  confidence  in  God,  without  giving 
us  distrust  in  ourselves.  It  makes  even  this  distrust  one  of 
the  parts  of  our  faith,  one  of  the  elements  of  our  strength, 
one  of  the  pledges  of  our  security.  It,  in  a  word,  inspires 
our  humility  with  courage,  by  concentrating  our  looks  and 


20  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

our  hope  upon  the  same  object,  and  incessantly  repeating  to 
us,  by  the  mouth  of  the  prophet,  "  Look  unto  the  rock 
whence  ye  are  hewn,  and  to  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  ye 
aredi^o-ed."  Is.   li.   1. 

It  is  impossible,  brethren,  to  say  or  even  attend  to  all 
that  might  be  said,  nor  is  it  necessary.  We  have  said 
enough,  or  rather  you,  by  our  mouth,  have  said  enough  to 
yourselves  in  order  to  feel  that  Christ  crucified  is  the  princi- 
pal objecjt  of  the  Christian ;  that  his  look,  when  directed  to 
this  object,  never  fails  to  find  in  it  all  the  other  objects  of 
Christian  truth  ;  that  we  cannot  contemplate  these  objects 
in  themselves  to  any  good  purpose  except  by  holding  them 
very  near  to  the  cross,  which  can  enable  us  to  see  them 
distinctly,  and  judge  them  correctly :  in  a  word,  that  there 
are  other  objects  in  religion,  but  that  it  is  only  in  it  and  by  it, 
that  we  can  have  a  real,  accurate,  profound,  living,  effica- 
cious knowledge  of  them.  Jesus  Christ,  we  repeat,  has  been 
made  unto  us  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sanctification, 
only  by  having  been  made  unto  us  redemption. 

Accordingly,  brethren,  it  was  towards  this  last  fact,  to- 
wards salvation  by  grace,  towards  reconciliation  by  Jesus 
Christ,  towards  the  mediation  accomplished  by  the  God-Man, 
that  the  Apostles  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  Jesus  Christ  himself, 
directed  and  fixed  the  look  of  the  rising  Church  ;  knowing 
well  that  the  conscience  of  the  Christian,  when  placed  in  the 
centre  of  truth,  would  easily  reach  the  circumference ; 
whereas  it  could  not,  if  placed  at  the  circumference,  see  the 
centre.  What  do  I  say  ?  It  could  not  even  place  itself  at 
the  circumference,  because  this  is  seen  only  from  the  centre. 
The  Jews  placed  themselves,  in  idea,  on  this  circumference, 
or  within  this  circle,  though  truly  impenetrable  and  invisible 
from  without,  when  they  said  to  Jesus  Christ,  "  What  shall 
we  do  to  work  the  works  of  God  ?"  and  Jesus  Christ  carried 
them  at  once  to  this  forgotten  centre  when  he  answered, 
"  The  work  of  God   is  to  believe  in  him  whom   God  hath 


LOOKING.  21 

sent."  When  Jesus  Christ,  moreover,  was  pleased  to  give 
an  epitome  of  his  doctrine,  and  render  it  visible  in  a  rite 
which  should  express  it,  and  preserve  it  in  all  its  entireness ; 
a  rite  where  no  one  could  mistake  it,  and  where  even  in  the 
absence  of  instruction  and  oral  teaching,  it  would  be  found 
pure  and  intact — what  did  he  do,  brethren  ?  He  instituted 
the  Supper,  which  clearly  represents  the  body  of  Christ  de- 
livered for  our  sins,  and  his  blood  shed  for  our  iniquities,  and 
which  cannot  represent  any  thing  but  this,  so  that  to  the  end 
of  ages,  wherever  it  will  be  celebrated,  it  will  recall  this 
event,  it  will  awaken  this  idea  in  all  minds,  the  Supper  being 
nothing  but  the  Gospel  abridged,  and  the  Gospel  reduced  by 
an  image  to  its  fundamental  idea.  In  the  same  way  true  re- 
formers have  at  all  times  carried  back  the  view  of  the 
Church  towards  this  centre  ;  and  every  Church,  by  looking 
back  towards  it,  has  regained  the  life  which  it  could  not  find, 
nor  even  seek  elsewhere. 

Are  the  Apostles  desirous  to  maintain  life  in  their  flocks  ? 
They,  like  Moses  in  the  desert,  lift  up  the  serpent  of  brass, 
and  exclaim,  "  Look  unto  Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher  of 
our  faith  ;  who,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him,  endured 
the  cross,  despising  the  shame."  Heb.  xii.  2.  Do  they  see 
life,  zeal,  and  love,  languishing  in  their  churches,  they  pro- 
nounce the  watchword  of  Christianity,  they  appeal  to  the 
memory  of  Christ  crucified,  they  exhibit  him  in  accents  of 
painful  astonishment  and  censure  to  their  misguided  followers : 
"  O  foolish  Galatians,  who  hath  bewitched  you  that  you  should 
not  obey  the  truth,  before  whose  eyes  Jesus  Christ  hath  been 
evidently  set  forth,  crucified  among  you  ?"  Gal.  iii.  1.  It  is 
useless  to  multiply  examples,  and  furnish  superfluous  proof 
from  the  past.     The  present  also  demands  our  attention. 

In  the  present  day,  what  is  it  to  preach  the  Gospel  but 
just  to  hold  forth  Christ  crucified  to  the  view  of  men  ?  Where 
do  you  see  the  Christian  life  bud  forth  and  expand  itself,  save 
there  only  where  the  beginning  and  end  of  preaching  is,  "Look 


22  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

on  him  whom  ye  have  pierced."  What  do  I  say  ?  Does 
not  the  preaching  which  forms  new  converts  consist  entirely 
of  these  words,  just  as  the  preaching  which  carries  them  on 
and  matures  them  comes  incessantly  to  the  same  point,  mak- 
ing it  the  source  of  all  its  instruction,  the  aim  of  all  its 
lessons  ? 

Yes  !  this  ^ngle  word,  this  single  object,  the  cross^ 
may  suffice  to  make  Christians,  and  without  it  nothing  suf- 
fices. 

The  proper  object  of  the  commission  of  the  missionary, 
as  well  as  that  of  the  pastor,  is  to  announce  Jesus  Christ. 
This  is  his  first  lesson,  and  it  is  the  strength,  the  grace,  the 
mercy,  the  key  of  all  the  rest.  Wonderful  beyond  expres- 
sion !  A  look,  a  simple  look,  (I  mean  not  an  argument,  a 
study,  a  toil,)  a  simple  look  converts  the  world  ;  and  the  es- 
sential task  of  the  apostle  is  to  dispose  sinners,  those  sufferers 
in  another  wilderness,  to  lift  their  drooping  heads  from  the 
ground,  and  turn  their  eyes  in  a  particular  direction.  What 
direction  ?  That  of  a  cross,  a  hideous  object  covered  with 
blood,  an  instrument  of  torture  and  symbol  of  ignominy ; 
and  which,  if  the  sufferer  had  not  made  the  instrument  glo- 
rious, would  produce  in  our  imagination  the  shuddering  im- 
pression of  a  gibbet  or  a  scaffold  !  Well !  the  view  of  this 
object  realizes  the  salvation  of  the  world,  the  whole  price  of 
which  has  been  paid  by  the  divine  goodness ;  and  all  that  we 
have  to  do,  not  as  the  condition  of  our  unconditional  salva- 
tion, but  as  a  means  of  appropriating  it,  is  to  look  at  it ;  not 
that  the  look  is  all,  but  that  it  is  a  prolific,  creative  look, 
which  contains  and  produces  all. 

If  the  fastidious  sentimentalists  of  the  world,  whose  imagi- 
nation has  antipathies  which  are  stronger  than  the  wants  and 
instincts  of  their  soul ;  if  the  admirers  of  human  perfection, 
spurning  the  idea  of  a  bloody  satisfaction,  and  a  salvation 
which  their  pride  will  not  allow  them  to  accept  gratis,  turn 
away  from  the  spectacle  at  once  fearful   and  humiliating 


LOOKING.  23 

which  we  set  before  them ;  if  that  which  is  gloomy  in  it 
hides  from  them  that  which  is  sublime — we  have  a  hope 
founded  on  the  experience  of  ages,  that  there  will  be  found 
spirits  less  proud  (perhaps  after  the  hammer  of  God  shall 
have  broken  their  pride  to  pieces)  ;  spirits  which  will  not  ob- 
stinately turn  away  their  eyes,  but  will  consent  to  behold  and 
look  on  him  whom  they  have  pierced.  And  whilst,  O  hea- 
venly Brother !  whilst  many  are  astonished  because  of  thee, 
because  thy  visage  is  more  marred  than  that  of  any  man, 
while  they  exclaim,  "  What !  is  this  the  person  who  is  pro- 
posed to  our  faith  as  its  object,  its  author  and  finisher  ?  There 
is  no  beauty  nor  comeliness  in  him,  nothing  to  make  him  to 
be  desired !"  there  will  be  found  in  all  ages,  in  all  countries, 
and  in  all  conditions,  O  cruci^ed  Redeemer !  admirers  of  thy 
beauty,  which  will  never  have  seemed  to  them  so  great  and 
so  divine  as  under  the  sweat  of  Gethsemane,  the  spittings  of 
the  prsetorium,  and  the  blood  as  it  trickled  from  the  crown  of 
thorns  down  thy  sacred  brow  !  In  their  eyes  thou  art  fairer 
than  any  of  the  sons  of  men  ;  and  it  is  under  thy  cross,  in 
the  view  of  thy  ignominy,  that  with  hearts  deeply  moved 
they  sing : 

Beneath  that  vail  which  shrouds  thy  face, 

Those  thorns  which  form  thy  crown, 
Shall  I  fail  to  discern  thy  grace  ? 

Shall  I  my  Lord  disown  ? 

My  faith  can  penetrate  the  cloud. 

All  bloody  though  it  be, 
And  there  behold,  without  a  cloud. 

Unsullied  majesty  ! 

Ne'er  in  heaven's  mansions,  calm  and  bright, 

Did  thy  immortal  brow 
Send  forth  its  pure  celestial  light 

More  gloriously  than  now. 


24  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

Ne'er  in  the  abode  which  beauty  keeps. 
Did  radiance  from  thy  head 

Beam  brighter,  than  when  thou  the  steeps 
Of  Golgotha  didst  tread. 


To  these  humble  souls  Jesus  Christ  upon  the  cross  is  fair; 
fair  as  salvation,  as  love,  as  truth,  as  hope,  because  Jesus 
Christ  upon  the  cross  is  all  salvation,  all  love,  all  truth,  all 
hope  ;  fair  with  the  beauty  of  grace,  and  the  beauty  of  the 
law,  because  upon  the  cross  to  which  his  love  nailed  him,  he 
represents  to  them  at  once  all  grace  and  all  love,  so  that  they 
speak  of  glory  in  the  view  of  this  ignominy,  of  joy  in  the 
view  of  those  sorrows,  of  life  irTthe  view  of  that  death.  And 
this  cross  on  which  Jesus  hangs  motionless,  on  which  to  ap- 
pearance Jesus  no  longer  acts,  no  longer  teaches,  and  scarce- 
ly speaks,  shows  them  Jesus  free,  acting,  speaking,  teaching, 
walking,  coming  to  them  in  triumph  and  glory  from  the  bo- 
som of  his  high  home ;  so  that  no  longer  seeing  what  the 
carnal  eye  sees,  and  seeing  what  that  eye  sees  not,  they  pros- 
trate themselves  before  the  accursed  tree,  exclaiming,  "  How 
beautiful  upon  the  mountains  are  the  feet  of  him  that  bring- 
eth  good  tidings,  that  publisheth  peace ;  that  bringeth  good 
tidings  of  good,  that  publisheth  salvation  ;  that  saith  unto 
Zion,  Thy  God  reigneth !"     Is.  Hi.  7. 

Truly,  brethren,  when  all  these  features  are  united  in 
thought,  the  astonishing  thing  is  not  that  some  look,  turn, 
and  cling  to  Christ  upon  the  cross,  but  that  the  eyes  of  all 
mankind  do  not  meet  together  upon  him  in  common  and  fer- 
vent contemplation.  To  speak  only  of  what  men  are  accus- 
tomed  to  call  fair,  never  was  a  fairer  spectacle  offered  to 
their  admiration.  According  to  ancient  sages,  a  good  man 
opposing  an  unalterable  countenance  to  the  stroke  of  fortune, 
is  a  spectacle  worthy  of  God  himself.  And  shall  the  specta- 
cle of  a  God,  the  victim  of  man's  wretchedness,  finding  in 
each  act  of  outrage  which  he  suffers  from  them  only  an  addi- 


LOOKING.  ^  2G 

tional  right  to  be  exerted  in  their  favor,  shall  this  spectacle, 
brethren,  if  the  other  was  worthy  of  God,  be  unworthy  of 
man  ?  Has  a  charity  all  divine  no  more  claim  than  a 
merely  human  virtue  ?  Can  God  and  mortal  man  be  seri- 
ously put  in  comparison  ?  And  when  God  humbles  himself 
to  look  upon  man,  is  it  too  much  for  ^man,  I  say  not  merely 
to  raise  his  ej'-es  to  God,  but  to  contemplate  him  eternally,  to 
contemplate  him  on  his  knees,  and  supplicate  as  his  highest 
good,  his  only  glory,  that  the  sight  which  stirs  and  trans- 
forms his  whole  being  may  never  be  withdrawn  ? 

I  say  stirs  and  transforms  his  ivlioJe  being.  Why  do  we 
speak  here  of  admiration  ?  the  subject  is  conversion  !  Why 
do  we  speak  of  beauty  ?  the  subject  is  salvation  !  It  is  as 
saving,  as  capable  of  making  us  pass  from  death  unto  life, 
that  we  recommend  this  contemplation.  We  recommend  it 
first  to  those  who  believe  not,  that  having  looked  they  may 
believe  and  live.  Let  them  distinctly  understand  us.  By 
the  term  looking,  we  mean  not  an  examination  of  the  proofs 
which  establish  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  although 
the  testimony  borne  in  its  favor  has  been  confirmed  by  won- 
ders and  miracles,  and  divers  other  effects  of  divine  power. 
Heb.  ii.  4.  We  mean  not  by  the  term  looking,  the  study  of 
the  Scriptures,  although  the  word  of  prophecy,  which  is  most 
sure,  bears  testimony  throughout  to  Jesus.  All  this  study 
is  commendable  and  necessary,  and  far  be  it  from  us  to  dis- 
suade you  from  a  study  which  is  in  the  present  day  too  much 
neglected,  and  without  which  it  is  to  be  feared  many  will 
never  come  to  look  at  Jesus  Christ.  But  still,  all  these 
labors  together  are  not  worth  and  cannot  supersede  the  look 
for  which  we  plead,  whereas  this  look  alone  has  often  super- 
seded them.  No  doubt  "  faith  cometh  by  hearing ;"  in  other 
words,  hearing  is  the  origin  of  faith,  its  starting  point ;  but  it 
belongs  to  the  eye  to  finish  the  uncompleted  work  of  hearing. 
Where,  in  your  opinion,  is  there  a  man  who  has  heard  much, 
and  read  much,  but  not  looked  ?  a  man  who  has  carefully 
8 


26  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

examined  the  proofs  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  a  man  who  has 
admitted  them,  and  yet  not  looked  at  Christ  ?  a  man  whom 
these  proofs  have  convinced,  that  is  to  say  vanquished,  forced 
to  believe,  but  whose  faith,  wholly  passive,  though  it  receives 
and  yields  to  the  truth,  does  not  embrace  it,  and  become 
united  to  it  by  a  proper  movement,  and  to  whom,  strange  to 
say,  the  truth  at  once  is  and  is  not  ?  a  man  who,  conducted 
by  his  studies  to  the  very  foot  of  the  cross,  remains  there  with 
downcast  eyes,  never  raising  them  towards  tlie  cross,  nor  tOr 
wards  him  whom  it  bears  and  whose  adorable  blood  is  run- 
ning down  this  accursed  tree  ?  Others  have  not  been  able 
to  believe  till  they  lifted  their  eyes  and  looked  at  Christ. 
Those,  I  admit,  have  believed  but  with  a  forced  faith,  on  the 
account  of  the  whole  world,  and  not  on  their  own  personal 
account ;  with  a  faith  which  is  to  them  only  a  yoke  and  bur- 
den ;  a  faith  which  they  support,  but  which  does  not  support 
them  until,  passing  beyond  this  terminated  labor,  this  ex- 
hausted  spring,  they  begin  to  look  simply  at  Jesus.  Are 
we  rash  in  speaking  of  this  look  as  a  condition  of  true  faith, 
when  Jesus  Christ  himself  has  said,  "  Every  one  which  seeth 
the  Son,  and  believeth  on  him,"  (z.  e.  every  one  who,  having 
seen  the  Son,  hath  believed  in  him,)  "  hath  everlasting  life." 
These  words,  brethren,  decidedly  annex  life  to  a  look ;  not 
indeed  to  every  kind  of  look,  but  to  an  attentive,  earnest, 
prolonged  look  ;  a  look  more  simple  than  that  of  observation  ; 
a  look  which  looks,  and  does  nothing  more  ;  a  lively,  un- 
affected, childlike  look ;  a  look  in  which  the  whole  soul 
appears ;  a  look  of  the  heart  and  not  of  the  intellect ;  one 
which  does  not  seek  to  decompound  its  object,  but  receives  it 
into  the  soul  in  all  its  entireness  through  the  eye. 

Have  you  thus  looked  at  Jesus,  you  who  deny  Jesus,  or 
who,  without  denying  him,  do  worse,  perhaps,  since  you  re» 
duce  him  to  nothing  ?  Oh  !  deny  not,  discard  not  this  God- 
Man,  this  man  of  sorrows,  before  having  looked  at  him.  A 
single  glance,  simple,  ingenuous,   free  from  prejudice,   has 


LOOKING.  27 

sometimes  united  him  to  those  who  heard  him  spoken  of  for 
the  first  time  :  the  same  grace  will,  perhaps,  be  granted  to 
you.  This  much  is  certain  :  it  will  not  be  refused,  (in  fact 
has  it  ever  been  refused  ?)  to  an  assiduous  and  prolonged 
look,  such  as  this  holy  object  claims,  and  such  as  it  deserves. 
When  Jesus  shall  have  been  set  forth,  or  rather,  shall  have 
portrayed  himself,  as  the  apostle  calls  it,  before  your  eyes; 
when,  as  the  result  of  this  profound  contemplation,  he  shall 
have  been  crucified  before^ you  ;  when  you  shall,  for  the  first 
time,  have  beheld  all  the  glory  of  his  martyrdom,  all  the 
authority  of  his  dying  words,  all  the  inconceivable  love  which 
mingles  with  this  incomparable  authority  ;  when,  penetrating 
within  the  vail  of  his  sufTerings,  even  into  the  secret  of  his 
work,  and  the  secret  of  his  soul,  you  shall  have  seen  God 
himself  humbled  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  level  of 
our  miseries,  and  the  infinitude  of  love  revealing  itself  for 
the  first  time  in  the  infinitude  of  power;  when  you  shall 
have  in  some  measure  (and  in  one  sense  this  is  real)  seen 
with  your  eyes,  and  with  your  hands  handled  what  we  an- 
nounce to  you ;  then,  as  naturally  as  light  enters  the  eye, 
and  air  enters  the  lungs  (though  the  eye  perceives  not  that 
it  has  seen,  nor  the  lungs  that  they  have  breathed),  this  great 
and  unfathomable  mystery  of  a  love,  with  which  we  can, 
and  without  which  we  could  not,  form  any  proper  idea  of 
God,  will  enter  your  mind,  which  respiring  it,  so  to  speak, 
will  not  feel  oppressed  by  it  any  more  than  the  lungs  feel 
oppressed  by  the  air  which  they  breathe, — so  natural  is  this 
supernatural  truth,  and  so  much,  without  being  foreseen  or 
suspected  by  the  soul  of  man,  is  it  unconsciously  anticipated, 
wished,  and  invited. 

After  having  said  Look  !  to  those  who  believe  not,  shall 
we  not  say  it  to  tliose  who  believe,  I  mean  even  those  who 
believe  truly  ?  Did  we  not,  we  should  have  a  very  superfi- 
cial and  false  idea  of  faith.  Faith  is  not  a  state  in  which  we 
are  placed,  once  for  all,  on  admitting  the  proof  of  religious 


28  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

truth.  To  believe  is  an  action,  an  action  of  the  soul,  over 
renewing  its  acceptance  of  what  it  believed  at  first,  and  con- 
stantly reuniting  itself  to  it.  If  it  is  so,  and  if  it  is  true  that 
we  cannot  believe  without  looking,  is  it  not  clear  that  from 
the  date  of  conversion,  which  had  its  commencement  in  a 
look,  we  must  look  incessantly  ?  Others,  perhops,  will  say, 
It  is  not  necessary  to  look  incessantly,  but  to  reflect  inces- 
santly on  what  has  been  seen.  Certainly,  brethren,  we  mean 
not  to  exclude  reflection  ;  there  is  even  much  of  it  necessari- 
ly in  the  look  which  we  recommend.  However,  we  would 
not  be  satisfied  if  the  reflection  did  not  come  from  the  look, 
or  if  the  look  did  not  follow  in  the  train  of  the  reflection. 
After  all,  the  object  of  Christianity  is  not  an  abstract  truth. 
It  is  a  fact,  a  person,  Jesus  Christ,  Jesus  Christ  crucified. 
These  naturally  ofTer  themselves  to  the  eye  before  oflering 
themselves  to  the  n)ind  ;  and  that  which  acts  on  our  soul 
in  the  blessed  way  in  which  God  has  been  pleased  to  appoint, 
is  this  object  itself.  We  believe  not  in  Christianity,  but  in 
Jesus  Christ.  Every  Christian  act  done  in  the  world  is  done, 
not  by  Christianity  (which  is  itself  only  an  effect),  but  by 
Jesus  Christ.  The  relations  which  we  bear  as  Christians 
are  not  intellectual  relations,  relations  between  our  mind  and 
a  truth,  but  relations  between  person  and  person  ;  relations 
between  us  men,  and  Jesus  Cin-ist  both  man  and  God.  The 
object  of  our  faith  is  invisible,  but  not  impersonal.  He  is  not 
seen  with  the  eye  of  flesh,  but,  nevertheless,  he  is  seen.  We 
do  not  converse  with  him  as  with  an  idea,  that  is  to  say  in 
substance  as  v/ith  ourselves,  but  as  with  a  Being  who  is  with 
us  even  to  the  end  of  the  world.  Whoever  then,  being  a 
Christian,  looks  not,  or  looks  little,  is  wanting  to  his  faith,  is 
wanting  even  to  his  name.  His  first  vocation,  his  first  inte- 
rest, is  to  look  often  and  much. 

If  these  reflections,  brethren,  appear  to  you  superfluous, 
and  if  you  do  not  at  first  perceive  any  occasion  for  them,  we 
would  say  to  you,  that  among  convinced  and  sincere  Chris- 


LOOKING.  /  2$ 

tians,  in  addition  to  those  who  look  to  Jesus  Christ,  I  see  a 
great  number  who  do  not  look  to  him,  or  do  not  look  suffi- 
ciently. I  see  some,  moreover,  who  look,  but  who  do  not,  so 
frequently  as  they  ought,  carry  their  looks  and  all  their 
thoughts  towards  Christ  crucified. 

The  former  fail  to  behold  Jesus  Christ,  because  they  give 
too  much  to  thought  or  action,  or  because  instead  of  contem- 
plating Jesus  Christ  they  contemplate  themselves.  With  re- 
gard to  believing  thinkers,  we  would  observe,  that  to  think  is 
not  always  the  same  as  to  look  ;  and  to  think  of  Jesus,  not 
always  the  same  as  to  look  to  Jesus.  We  may  be  withdrawn 
from  Jesus,  estranged  from  Jesus,  while  thinking  of  him.  It 
is  no  longer  the  person,  but  the  ideal  representation  of  Jesus 
that  we  have  defore  our  eyes.  We  reason  about  him  as 
about  an  idea  of  which  he  is  the  name.  We  often  name 
him,  but  we  take  his  name  in  vain.  We  have  before  our 
eyes  only  the  form  of  the  object,  not  the  object  itself.  We  do 
not  like  those  who,  in  examining  a  fruit,  its  size,  weight,  shape, 
and  color,  should  forget  that  it  is  savory  and  nutritive,  and 
cast  it  away,  after  having  measured,  weighed,  sketched,  and 
painted  it.  It  is  not  thus,  at  least  it  is  not  thus  principally, 
that  we  ought  to  be  occupied  with  Jesus  Christ.  To  be  oc- 
cupied with  him  exclusively  in  this  way,  is  not  to  be  occu- 
pied with  him.  It  is  to  fill  every  thing  with  his  name,  his 
idea,  and  in  other  respects  leave  every  thing  void  of  him. 
Would  you  think  usefully  of  your  Saviour,  look  to  your 
Saviour. 

As  to  the  activity  with  which  a  sincere  Christian  devotes 
himself  to  the  name  of  Christ,  it  indeed  implies  that  he  has, 
once  at  least,  looked  to  Jesus  Christ ;  but  continued  action 
does  not  imply  continued  looking.  So  far  from  this,  it  may 
direct  and  detain  the  view  elsewhere.  Though  setting  out 
from  him  (as  I  am  willing  to  believe),  it  may  not  return  to 
him.  His  name  may  remain  affixed  to  the  work  when  the 
work   is   his   no   longer.      Doubtless   action    is   necessary. 


dO  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

Doubtless,  it  may  be  said  with  certainty  of  him  who  acts 
not,  that  he  looks  not,  or  even  that  he  has  never  looked. 
But  action,  even  sustained,  indefatigable  action,  does  not  im- 
ply looking,  at  least  in  the  same  degree.  The  danger  here 
is  in  the  illusion,  so  easy  for  others  and  for  ourselves,  and 
more  easy  on  the  subject  of  action  than  of  thought.  For  a 
faith  which  acts  not,  cannot  flatter  itself  with  being  sincere  ; 
whereas  we  easily  persuade  ourselves  that  we  are  in  the 
truth,  when  we  are  laboring  in  the  name  of  the  truth.  But 
be  this  as  it  may,  action  does  not  dispense  with  looking,  and 
is  not  a  substitute  for  looking ;  and  though  it  should  perse- 
vere, and  gain  warmth  by  its  own  movement,  I  still  repeat 
what  I  have  said  :  for  its  duration  and  progress  are  no  proof 
of  a  revival  of  life,  or  of  intimate  communion  with  him  in 
whose  name  we  act.  No,  brethren ;  without  resorting  to 
any  uncharitable  or  disparaging  explanation,  it  is  certain 
that  we  very  often  act  because  we  have  acted  ;  we  continue 
because  we  have  begun  ;  we  devote  ourselves  to  our  work 
because  it  is  a  work,  or  because  it  is  ours.  Our  first  impulse 
is  exhausted,  but  habit  and  preoccupation  give  us  another  ; 
we  no  longer  imitate  Christ,  but  we  imitate  ourselves,  we 
obey  ourselves.  Custom,  without  the  help  of  any  principle, 
links  our  present  to  our  past;  and  those  first  works,  so 
earnest  at  the  outset,  become  at  length  mechanical,  and 
almost  involuntary  works.  Looking  alone  can  render  to 
action,  not  that  feverish  vivacity  which  our  passions  will 
always  give  it  in  abundance,  but  that  calm  force,  that  de- 
gree, that  delicate  precision,  that  beauty  which  passion  can 
never  give. 

There  are  persons,  in  fine,  who  look,  and  even  contem- 
plate, but  contemplate  themselves.  We  have  already  said 
how  necessary  this  self-consideration  is,  and  we  need  not 
repeat ;  but  though  it  be  impossible  to  contemplate  our 
misery  without  being  urged  towards  Christ,  or  to  contem- 
plate Jesus  Christ  without  being  recalled  to  a  sense  of  our 


LOOKING.  31 

misery,  this  misery  is  not,  however,  the  object  of  saving 
faith,  and  the  view  of  this  misery  cannot  place  in  our  heart 
the  elements  of  life  and  earnests  of  salvation.  It  must  even 
be  confessed  that,  though  powerless  to  save,  it  is  able  to  des- 
troy. It  alternately  discourages  and  sours  ;  it  even  does 
both  at  the  same  time.  It  exhausts,  and  in  barren  regrets 
enervates  the  soul  which  lives  on  joy  and  hope,  but  dies  of 
sadness ;  and  the  only  life  which  remains  to  it  in  this  death, 
the  only  life  which  springs  from  this  death,  is  ill  humor, 
peevishness,  murmuring,  and  envy.  The  knowledge  of  the 
law  of  God  serves  only  to  aggravate  the  evil,  by  depriving 
us  not  only  of  any  delusive  hopes  entertained,  but  of  all 
remaining  energy  and  strength.  Thenceforth,  strange  to 
say,  the  position  of  him  who  knows  not  the  law  of  God  is 
more  favorable  than  the  position  of  him  who  knows  it.  The 
law  worketh  death  in  every  sense  of  the  word ;  for  after  we 
have  learned  from  it  not  only  the  full  extent  of  its  demands, 
but  also  that,  as  the  apostle  expresses  it,  "  the  judgment  of 
God  against  those  who  commit  such  things  is  that  they  are 
worthy  of  death,"  we  are  thereby  dead  already,  because  we 
have  ceased  to  trust  in  ourselves,  or  to  hope  in  God.  But 
this,  you  will  say,  does  not  apply  to  the  Christian  who  is 
not  subject  to  the  law,  and  for  whom  the  ministry  of  death 
by  Moses  has  been  succeeded  by  the  ministry  of  righteous- 
ness by  Jesus  Christ.  Yes,  it  does  apply,  when  he  does  not 
assiduously  contemplate  Jesus  Christ.  It  does  apply  to  him 
when  there  is  a  principle  of  death,  a  partial  death,  in  the 
practice  of  tasting  and  relishing  his  misery,  instead  of  tasting 
and  relishing  the  goodness  of  God.  He  does  not,  I  admit, 
fall  into  despair ;  because,  though  on  the  brink  of  it,  he  is 
held  back  by  the  remembrance  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  by  a  chain 
which  becomes  perceptible  at  the  precise  moment  when  it  is 
all  drawn  out  and  not  another  step  could  be  made  towards 
the  abyss,  unless  the  chain  were  to  give  way.  He  falls  not 
into  despair,  but  into  deep  despondency.      The  soul,  not- 


32  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

withstanding  of  some  glimmerings  which  ever  and  anon 
come  to  it  from  the  cross,  is  habitually  sad,  and  so  far 
feeble.  It  deemed  it  sufficient  to  look  at  Jesus  Christ  once 
for  all ;  but  either  he  must  be  looked  at  incessantly,  or  we 
must  look  incessantly  at  sin.  The  eye,  at  least  if  it  is  not 
blind,  has  no  alternative ;  and  if  it  is  certain  that  we  shall 
not  lose  sight  of  our  misery  by  looking  at  Christ  crucified, 
because  this  misery  is,  as  it  were,  engraved  upon  the  cross, 
it  is  equally  certain  that  in  looking  at  our  misery,  we  may 
lose  sight  of  Jesus  Christ,  because  the  cross  is  not  naturally 
engraved  on  the  image  of  our  misery.  An  apostle  was 
blamed  for  wishing  to  put  his  hands  into  the  wounds  of  his 
risen  Master.  We  all  concur  in  blaming  him,  and  ask, 
Why  did  he  not  rather  put  them  into  his  own  wounds,  the 
wounds  of  his  soul  ?  But  in  another  view,  the  example  of 
Thomas  should  furnish  us  with  a  rule  ;  for  it  is  not  into  our 
own  wounds,  but  into  those  of  Jesus,  that  we  ought  to  put 
our  hands ;  and  it  is  in  this  sense  that  we  say  to  the  class  of 
believers  whom  we  have  in  view.  Look ;  yes,  look  every 
where ;  look  to  the  depth  of  your  misery,  but  look  more  to 
Jesus  Christ,  at  least  never  consent  to  see  yourself  and  your 
sin,  except  through  the  medium  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  his 
triumphant  love. 

And  to  speak  not  merely  of  our  misery,  but  generally  of 
attention  to  our  impressions  and  successive  states,  we  can- 
not, brethren,  be  too  much  on  our  guard  against  giving  to 
this  matter  the  time  and  interest  which  we  owe,  above  all, 
to  the  contemplation  of  our  Saviour.  Here,  you  understand, 
there  is  no  exclusive,  no  absolute  system.  We  defend  the 
sacred  cause  of  the  contemplation  of  Jesus  without  condemn- 
ing self-examination.  To  do  so  were  to  condemn  the  Gospel 
which  sanctions  and  recommends  it.  This  sanction  may  be 
seen  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  "  Examine  yourselves, 
whether  ye  be  in  the  faith  ;  prove  your  own  selves  :  know 
ye  not  your  own  selves,  how  that  Jesus  Christ  is  in  you  ?" 


LOOKING.  33 

2  Cor.  xiii.  5.  These  words  would  have  no  meaning  if  self- 
examination  was  forbidden.  It  must  also  be  admitted  that 
when  St.  John  declares,  "  Hereby  (by  loving  the  brethren) 
we  know  that  we  are  of  the  truth,"  he  authorizes,  nay,  he 
obliges  us  to  have  recourse  to  that  self-examination  against 
which  we  are  apparently  desirous  to  put  you  on  your  guard. 
But  in  fact  we  only  mean  to  guard  you  against  the  abuse  of 
it,  and  it  is  of  importance  to  do  so.  The  very  principle 
which  leads  to  this  tendency  is  suspicious;  and  since  the 
subject  is  self-examination,  let  us  first  examine  ourselves  in 
regard  to  this  examination.  We  will  perceive  that  personal 
feelings  have  always  much  to  do  with  the  practice  which, 
moreover,  never  fails  to  nourish  these  feelings  and  strengthen 
them.  When  occupied  with  ourselves,  should  it  even  be  in 
condemning  ourselves  and  hating  ourselves,  we  feel  a  bitter 
pleasure,  a  torturing  delight ;  and  this  pleasure  is  so  danger- 
ous that  it  becomes  necessary  to  wean  ourselves  from  it, 
even  although  it  should  have  been  purchased  at  the  cost  of  a 
deep  humiliation. 

Another  danger  not  less  great,  is  gradually  to  make  void 
the  cross  of  Christ,  and  subtilely  substitute  for  the  free  pardon 
of  God  something  which  at  first  sight  appears  not  to  be  a  work, 
but,  notwithstanding,  is  one;  to  deduct  somewhat  from  the 
absolute  value  of  the  work  which  has  been  done  out  of  us,  to 
bestow  it  upon  the  work  which  has  been  done  in  us,  and 
which,  because  done  in  us,  is  readily  believed  to  be  done  by 
us ;  to  cease  casting  ourselves  entirely  upon  the  Divine 
mercy ;  and,  to  say  all  in  a  word,  to  convert  salvation  into  a 
matter  and  question  of  feeling.  It  is  not,  it  cannot  be  so  : 
there  are  no  degrees  of  less  or  more  in  that  which  is  absolute ; 
and  as  Jesus  Christ  has  not  died  for  some  more,  and  for  others 
less,  he  has  not  died  more  or  less  for  each  of  us  in  respect  of 
our  state  at  any  given  moment."  Far  be  it  from  me,  brethren, 
to  encourage  the  fatal  idea,  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  take 
heed  to  what  we  are,  nor,  consequently,  to  what  we  do ;  an 
3* 


a4  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

idea  of  which  the  ultimate  but  inevitable  consequence  would 
be  to  make  us  feel  a  complacency  in  the  contrast  between 
our  faith  and  our  moral  state,  to  feel  proud  in  proportion  to 
the  strength  of  the  contrast,  and  on  the  ground  of  its  being  a 
more  simple  and  sincere  faith,  to  give  the  first  place  to  the 
faith  which  is  the  more  confident,  the  fewer  grounds  it  has  for 
confidence.  And  thus  we  would  end  by  thinking  ourselves 
nearer  to  God,  the  farther  our  life  was  estranged  from  him. 
When  the  Apostle  spoke  with  approbation  of  those  who  hoped 
against  hope  (Rom.  iv.  18),  this  was  not  the  class  of  Chris- 
tians whom  he  had  in  view,  although  they  certainly  do  hope 
against  hope.  What  would  become  of  the  exhortation  to 
vigilance,  if  the  duty  of  self-examination  were  not  recognized  ? 
How  can  we  watch  over  the  life,  without  watching  over  the 
heart,  out  of  which  are  the  issues  of  life  ?  In  fine,  how  can 
we  avoid  judging,  when  all  systems  hold  that  salvation  con- 
sists in  communion  of  heart  and  will  with  the  Father  of  our 
spirits,  and  that  this  communion,  if  impaired,  would  impair 
the  joys  of  heaven  and  salvation  ?  Does  not  St.  Paul  lend  us 
his  authority,  when  he  says  that  God  has  given  us  in  his 
Spirit  (not  in  his  word)  the  earnest  (or  a  payment  to  account) 
of  our  inheritance ;  and  that  his  Spirit  (not  his  word)  bears 
testimony  with  our  spirit  that  we  are  his  children?  Now 
there  is  nothing  magical  in  the  agency  of  the  Spirit.  The 
Spirit  is  known  by  fruits,  inclinations,  works,  the  whole  life  ; 
and  it  is  accordingly  in  this  life  proceeding  from  the  Spirit 
that  we  receive  the  earnest  or  foretaste  of  heaven. 

But  while  admitting  all  this,  and  prepared,  if  necessary, 
to  defend  it,  we  say,  brethren,  as  the  result  of  the  preceding 
remarks,  that  this  contemplation  of  ourselves,  if  it  be  not  un- 
ceasingly purified  by  the  contemplation  of  Jesus  Christ,  readily 
becomes  egotistical.  If  not  subordinated  to  the  contemplation 
of  Jesus  Christ,  it  leads  us  step  by  step  to  our  own  righteous- 
ness, to  salvation  by  works,  from  thence  to  pride,  if  we  forget 
ourselves,  or  to  listlessness  and  despondency,  if  we  see  our- 


LOOKING.  35 

selves  as  we  are ;  so  that  at  last  the  noble  principle  which 
salvation  by  grace  should  have  placed  in  our  hearts,  that 
principle  whose  place  cannot  be  supplied,  and  out  of  which 
there  is  nought  but  falsehood,  deceit,  and  rebellion  ;  that  prin- 
ciple, I  say,  slowly  undermined  by  self  and  curiosity,  fades 
from  our  creed,  which  is  then  like  an  old  tree  standing  with 
its  bark  after  the  wood  and  pith  have  wasted  away. 

As  to  those  of  whom  I  have  also  spoken,  who,  looking  to 
Jesus  Christ,  do  not  look  to  him  supremely,  nor  return  to  him 
constantly,  our  language  is :  There  is  only  embarrassment, 
obscurity,  anguish,  sterile  fatigue,  in  all  the  systems,  with  re- 
gard to  Jesus  Christ,  which  are  drawn  successively  from  the 
Gospel,  while  they  are  only  systems.  Speculation  concern- 
ing Jesus  Christ,  mere  speculation,  however  sublime  and 
necessary,  is  withering  and  deadly.  Not  that  we  adopt  the 
view  of  those  who  say,  "  Look  at  the  cross  and  look  at  nothing 
more,  speak  of  the  cross,  and  of  the  cross  only ;  give  your- 
selves no  concern  with  the  fact  that  St.  Paul,  St.  John,  and, 
before  them,  the  Saviour  himself,  spoke  of  other  things.  It 
is  true  that  they  have  spoken  of  regeneration,  without  which 
we  cannot  enter  the  kingdom  of  God ;  and  of  holiness,  with- 
out which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord.  They  had  reasons 
which  to  us  are  unknown,  but  don't  you  act  so.  For  it  is 
very  clear  that  if  you  speak  of  the  ne-cessity  of  a  new  birth, 
it  is  just  as  if  you  were  ordering  men  to  be  born  anew,  and 
that  if  you  enter  into  detail  on  the  subject  of  sanctification, 
you  open  the  door  to  a  self  righteousness,  forming  a  species 
of  unhallowed  traffic  which  Christ  Jesus  drove  from  the  sanc- 
tuary." 

This,  brethren,  is  not  the  language  in  which  we  will  ad- 
dress you.  There  is  no  choice  in  the  Gospel ;  every  thing 
must  be  taken,  nothing  left ;  and  if  Paul,  when  speaking  of 
the  productions  of  the  natural  world,  could  say,  "  Every 
creature  of  God  is  good,  and  nothing  to  be  refused,  if  it  be 
received  with  thanksgiving"  (1  Tim.  iv.  4),  may  not  we  say 


36  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

the  same  of  the  Gospel,  that  other  creature,  in  which  assur- 
edly every  thing  is  good  ;  only,  with  the  apostle  let  us  add, 
*'  if  it  be  received  with  thanksgiving  ;"  words  which,  with  re- 
ference to  our  subject,  we  interpret  thus  :  Provided  that  your 
gratitude  towards  Jesus  Christ,  provided  that  your  dependence 
on  the  mere  grace  of  God,  provided  that  your  confidence  in 
your  Saviour,  overrule  and  pervade  the  whole  ;  provided  that 
you  combine  this  idea  along  with  each  of  your  other  ideas,  in 
order  to  complete  and  explain  them ;  provided  that,  after 
having  learned  many  things,  you  are  able  to  say.  One  thing 
I  know,  and  would  know,  ''Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified." 
Why,  brethren,  cannot  we  accustom  your  eyes  and  our 
own  to  this  simple  looking  towards  Jesus  which  has  been  the 
strength  and  unction  of  believers  in  all  ages?     Why  cannot 
we  imprint  on  your  soul,  and  primarily  on  our  own,  the  salu- 
tary impression,  that  all  the  trials,  perplexities,  and  difficul- 
ties of  the  Christian  life  of  their  own  accord  vanish  away  in 
this  blessed  unity  of  the  Chrfstian  look.     This  look,  so  simple 
that  the  humblest  child  is  capable  of  it,  suffices  for  all.     It 
is  the  cause  of  the  most  different  effects,  the  cure  of  the  most 
opposite  evils ;  it  is  equally  victorious  over  the  difficulties  of 
systems,  and  the  perplexities  of  doubt,  the  assaults  of  pride, 
and  the  assaults  of  despair ;  the  temptations  of  covetousness, 
and  those  of  sorrow ;  the  bitterness  of  hatred,  and  the  weak- 
ness of  natural  affection.     When  we  behold  the  cross,  there 
proceeds  from  it  a  light  which  disperses  all  darkness,  and  a 
flame  of  love  which  consumes  all  hatred.     "  Who  shall  stand 
when  he   appeareth  !"  exclaimed   the  last  of  the  prophets, 
with  eyes  upturned   towards    the   east.     And  we  too,  say, 
What  anguish,  what  pain,  what  bitterness  can  there  be  when 
Jesus  Christ  appears ;  when  love  divine,  love  without  mea- 
sure, unconditional,  unlimited,  breaks   forth   upon  us  in  the 
mystery  of  the  cross !     All  reasonings,  all  combinations,  all 
counsels,  all  methods,  are   not   as  regards  the  heart  or  even 
the  understanding,  worth  a  look  directed  to  Jesus ;  and  though 


LOOKLNG. 


37 


all  these  means  are  useful,  (who  would  deny  that  they  are  ?) 
there  is  still  need  of  the  look,  still  need  of  the  light  to  quicken 
all,  and  give  strength  to  all.  Let  it  only  appear;  it  has  only 
to  be  seen.  "They  looked  to  him,"  says  the  Psalmist, 
"  and  were  lightened  "  (Ps.  xxxiv.  5),  i.  e.  at  once  illumined, 
warmed,  quickened,  consoled. 

Meditate,  brethren,  on  the  idea  (which  perhaps  too  seldom 
presents  itself  to  your  mind),  that  the  view  of  the  cross  is 
all-sufficient.  We  perceive  certain  uses  of  it ;  we  do  not 
comprehend  all  of  them.  We  understand  how  it  carries  con* 
solation  into  a  soul  bending  under  the  burden  of  sin  ;  but  do 
we  understand  that  it  is  equally  good  for  distresses  of  the 
flesh  ?  We  comprehend  how  this  view  gives  once  for  all  a 
general  direction  to  our  life  ;  do  we  also  comprehend  how  on 
every  practical  question  that  can  be  raised,  it  gives  direct 
counsel,  and  the  means  of  solution  ?  Its  light,  like  that  of 
the  sun,  is  not  only  boundless  and  immense,  but  minutely 
subdivided  so  as  to  penetrate  into  every  fold,  into  every  chink 
which  we  open  to  it,  in  our  life.  We  comprehend  how,  be- 
ing offered  as  a  cure  to  our  wretchedness,  it  gives  us  the 
knowledge  and  the  measure  of  our  wretchedness;  but  do  we 
also  comprehend  how  well  fitted  it  is  to  dissipate  all  doubts  as 
to  the  truth  of  the  Gospel,  and  all  the  perplexity  introduced 
into  our  mind  by  the  unfortunate  complication  of  the  systems 
formed  out  of  the  Gospel  ?  We  comprehend  the  benefit  of 
looking  in  times  of  trouble  and  darkness ;  do  we  also  com- 
prehend the  benefit  of  looking  when  the  mind  is  clear,  the 
heart  at  ease,  the  life  prosperous, — being  not  only  brightness 
in  brightness,  repose  in  repose,  prosperity  in  prosperity,  but 
all  of  these  in  reality  and  perfection  ?  No,  the  uses  of  the 
cross  are  not  all  equally  known  by  all ;  no,  none  of  us  make 
(far  from  it!)  all  that  might  be  made  of  it,  because  none  feel 
sufficiently  that  it  is  proper  for  all,  and  sufficient  for  all,  that 
it  contains  all,  and  is  all,  gives  all  on  earth,  and  promises  all 
in  heaven. 


38  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

Brethren,  it  is  one  of  the  wonders  peculiar  to  the  Gospel, 
that  when  we  would  distinguish  between  the  means  which  it 
offers  and  the  end  which  it  proposes,  between  sacrifices  and 
their  reward,  the  present  and  the  future,  earth  and  heaven, 
we  find  a  difficulty  in  doing  it,  so  much  oneness  is  there  in 
the  destiny  of  man,  so  much  oneness  in  truth,  so  much  are 
duty  and  happiness,  though  separated  in  our  mind  in  con- 
sequence of  the  fall,  substantially  one  and  the  same.  In  the 
Gospel,  the  reward  of  loving,  is  to  love  more ;  the  reward  of 
seeing,  to  see  still  better.  We  have  exhorted  you  to  look, 
as  a  duty  of  wisdom  and  Christian  prudence.  Well,  the 
glory  and  happiness  of  heaven  will  consist  in  looking.  Who 
knows  not  that  this  is  the  term  which  the  sacred  writers  most 
frequently  use  to  denote  celestial  blessedness  ?  Who  knows 
not  that  in  their  language  to  be  saved,  is  to  see  God  ?  Wit- 
ness him  who  declares  that  without  holiness  no  man  shall  see 
the  Lord.  Witness  Jesus  Christ  himself,  who  proclaims. 
Blessed  are  the  poor  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God.  Wit- 
ness St.  John,  who  animates  Christians  to  fidelity,  by  the 
hope  of  one  day  seeing  God  as  he  is.  But  doubtless  it  is  not 
to  the  God  of  Sinai ;  it  is  to  Him  who  at  Golgotha  drew  aside 
the  last  vail  which  obscured  his  glory  ;  it  is  to  Him,  of  whom 
Job  was  thinking  when,  racked  by  affliction  of  every  kind, 
he  exclaimed,  "  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth,  and  that 
he  shall  stand  at  the  latter  day  upon  the  earth  :  and  though 
after  my  skin  worms  destroy  this  body,  yet  in  my  flesh  shall 
I  see  God :  whom  I  shall  see  for  myself,  and  mine  eyes  shall 
behold,  and  not  another."  It  was  of  the  same  God  that 
David  rapturously  exclaimed,  "  As  for  me,  I  will  behold  thy 
face  in  righteousness :  I  shall  be  satisfied,  when  I  awake, 
with  thy  likeness."  Ps.  xvii.  15.  And  certainly  you  have 
no  cause  to  wonder  that  eternal  happiness  has  been  repre- 
sented to  you  under  these  figures,  you  who  know  the  joy, 
the  incomparable  joy,  which  is  felt  in  contemplating  Jesus 
Christ.     Of  all  the  promises  with  which  the  prospect  of  the 


LOOKING.  »9 

heavenly  mansions  could  be  embellisiied,  none  give  such 
delight  to  your  heart  as  this.  You  shall  look  on  him  whom 
you  have  pierced.  When  one  of  our  fellow-creatures  has 
by  word  and  deed  given  us  proof  of  his  love  and  sympathy 
we  think  that  a  sight  of  him  could  lend  us  nothing,  tell  us 
nothing  more.  Of  what  consequence,  we  think,  the  features 
of  his  countenance  and  the  form  of  his  person  ?  And  yet  we 
long  to  see  him.  And  when  we  have  seen  him,  it  seems  to 
us  that  from  that  moment  only  we  know  who  he  is,  and  that 
we  did  not  know  before.  The  sound  of  his  voice,  and  his 
looks,  give  us  quite  a  new  impression,  and  this  moment  con- 
stitutes a  new  period  in  our  relation  to  him.  This,  brethren, 
gives  only  an  idea,  but  still  an  idea  of  the  personal  view  of 
Jesus  reserved  to  believers  in  another  life.  He  shall  doubt- 
less have  been  with  them  to  the  end  of  their  course,  as  he  is 
with  his  Church  to  the  end  of  the  world.  They  will  have 
known  and  conversed  with  him.  Some,  even  the  favored 
contemporaries  of  his  ministry,  will  have  seen  him  with  the 
eyes  of  their  flesh ;  but  to  see  him  with  that  eye  which 
pierces  even  to  the  centre  of  the  soul,  and  which  St.  Paul 
has  characterized  so  emphatically  when  he  says  that  '^  we 
shall  know  even  as  we  are  known  ;"  to  penetrate  even  into 
the  holiest  of  all,  I  mean  to  the  very  depth  of  this  ineffable 
love ;  to  feel  it  as  we  feel  our  own  affections,  to  taste  inces- 
santly, and  drink  long  draughts  of  this  incomparable  love  ; 
to  take  part  in  all  the  thoughts  of  the  Beloved,  to  receive  his 
divine  communications,  to  be  one  with  him,  as  he  is  one  with 
his  Father,  to  draw  inspiration  every  moment  from  the 
mysterious  virtue  of  his  look,  and  say  "  It  was  this  glorious 
Prince  of  eternity  that  I  pierced  ;  He  whom  my  eyes  behold 
is  at  once  my  victim,  and  my  God  !"  Vain  words,  to  ex- 
press what  is  inexpressible,  and  yet  sufficient  to  open  to  the 
eye  of  hope  a  rapturous  and  boundless  prospect !  May  it 
open  upon  each  of  us  !  But  in  order  that  our  unfaltering 
look   may  not  only  pierce  the  clouds,  but  bear  the  splendor 


40  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

which  seems  to  overpower  it,  let  it  long  rest  on  Jesus  cruci- 
fied. Thus  let  it  prepare  to  sustain  the  view  of  this  dazzling 
future.  Thus  let  it  have  learned  to  see  heaven  on  the  earth, 
before  seeing  heaven  in  heaven. 


lOVE  IN  THE  SPIRIT. 


Epaphras  "  declared  unto  us  your  love  in  the  Spirit. — Col.  i.  8. 

A  FEW  lines  before  our  text,  the  Apostle  himself  informs  us 
that  he  was  delighted  to  hear  of  the  faith  of  the  Colossians, 
and  their  love  towards  all  the  saints.  He  here  returns  to 
what  Epaphras  had  told  him,  but  he  names  only  one  of  the 
objects  which  he  mentioned  at  first.  He  here  merely  men- 
tions, and  seems  to  rejoice,  in  the  love  of  the  Colossians  ; 
only  he  adds  to  the  word  love  another  word  which  charac- 
terizes it.  "  Your  love,"  says  he,  ''  in  the  Spirit,"  or  ac- 
cording to  the  Spirit.  Our  discourse,  as  it  proceeds,  will 
explain  why  the  Apostle,  after  having  mentioned  faith  and 
love,  now  mentions  only  love.  But  our  text  invites  us,  (and 
for  this  we  have  chosen  it,)  to  make  ourselves  distinctly  ac- 
quainted with  the  subject  of  Paul's  joy,  to  inquire  into  the 
nature  of  this  love  in  the  Spirit,  which  the  Colossians  pos- 
sessed as  an  inestimable  treasure.  The  better  we  know  it, 
the  better  will  we  comprehend  the  joy  of  St.  Paul ;  the  bet- 
ter we  know  it,  we  shall  perhaps  see  cause  for  sadness,  but 
in  return  we  shall  know  ourselves;  important  knowledge, 
the  possession  of  which,  how  vexing  soever  it  may  be,  is 
always  ground  for  congratulation. 


42  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

In  what,  in  the  words  of  our  text,  does  St.  Paul  rejoice  ? 
or  at  least,  what  great  news  has  he  learned  ?  Great  news 
certainly,  and  of  great  joy.  He  has  learned  that  the  Colos- 
sians  live,  or  to  speak  more  correctly,  he  has  learned  that  by 
the  power  of  the  Spirit  they  have  passed  from  death  unto  life. 
This  is  our  affirmation  at  the  outset,  this  it  remains  for  us  to 
prove. 

Life  is  a  profound  mystery :  what  it  is  essentially  is 
known  to  none  but  Him  who  has  life  in  himself.  But  if  we 
are  unable  to  define  it,  we  can  recognize  it.  We  know  that 
it  is  a  superior  mode  of  existing,  and  its  principal  charac- 
teristic is  this :  the  living  being  is  endowed  with  a  power  of 
motion  which  is  proper  to  it,  and  the  conditions  of  which  are 
within  it,  whether  this  motion  takes  place  only  among  the 
different  parts  of  which  it  is  composed,  and,  so  to  speak,  from 
itself  to  itself,  or  transports  it  as  a  whole  from  one  place  to 
another.  If  we  add  that  this  motion,  which  we  make  the 
characteristic  of  life,  did  not  take  place  once  for  all  on  the 
formation  of  the  object,  but  continues  incessantly ;  that  the 
very  continuation  of  this  motion  is  life,  and  that  its  interrup- 
tion is  death,  we  have  sufficient  means  of  distinguishing  liv- 
ing beings  from  those  which  do  not  live. 

Moreover,  all  lives  are  not  the  same  life.  There  is  one 
life  of  the  plant,  another  of  the  animal,  another  of  man. 
One  being,  as  the  plant,  has  only  one  mode  of  living ;  an- 
other, as  the  animal,  has  two ;  man  is  more  richly  provided. 
He  has  several  lives.  He  has  that  of  the  animal,  since  he 
has  a  body  ;  that  of  the  intellect,  since  he  thinks  ;  that  of  the 
heart,  since  he  loves.  These  are  three  sorts  of  proper  motion 
and  internal  activity,  which  exist  united  in  him  alone,  at  least 
here  below. 

Let  us  stop  here  for  a  moment.  No  one  surely  will  con- 
tradict us  when  we  say  that  the  life  of  the  intellect  is  thought. 
These  two  things,  I  mean  the  faculty  which  is  called  intel- 
lect, and  the  act  which  is  called  thought,   are   so  clearly 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  43 

united  in  the  mind  of  every  man,  that  the  name  of  the  act 
is  often  substituted  in  discourse  for  the  name  of  the  faculty 
which  produces  it;  so  that  we  say  indifferently,  that  man  is 
distinguished  from  other  animals  by  intellect,  or  is  distin- 
guished from  them  by  thought.  It  would  be  as  impossible  to 
conceive  of  an  intellect  without  thought,  as  of  a  body  without 
extent ;  in  other  words,  a  body  which  should  not  occupy  any 
portion  of  space,  and  yet  be  a  body.  Every  one  understands 
that  intellect,  separated  from  thought,  is  nothing ;  for,  as  the 
intellect  does  not  see  itself,  as  we  have  no  way  of  perceiving 
it  but  by  its  acts,  we  could  have  no  knowledge  of  the  intellect 
if  we  had  not  seen  it  in  operation.  It  is  not  in  regard  to  us  a 
substance,  a  thing,  a  being,  but  an  agency.  Now,  what  would 
an  agency  be  which  should  not  act  ?  what  an  intellect  which 
should  not  think  ? 

On  this  there  is  no  dispute.  But  it  is  different  with  the 
heart.  Though  we  perceive  at  the  first  glance  that  the  life 
of  the  intellect  is  to  think,  it  does  not  seem  so  clear  that  the 
life  of  the  heart  is  to  love.  And  yet  it  is  certain  that  if  we 
recognize  the  life  of  the  heart  as  a  separate  life,  which  is  not 
to  be  confounded  either  with  the  life  of  the  body  or  with  that 
of  the  intellect,  the  moment  we  should  wish  to  say  what  the 
life  of  the  heart  is,  at  once,  without  intending  it,  we  should 
name  love.  Any  one  may  make  ihe  trial.  Any  one  may 
see  if  it  be  possible  for  him  to  give  an  idea  of  the  life  of  the 
heart  into  which  love  does  not  enter.  What  we  call-  the 
heart  can  no  more  be  seen,  no  more  be  known  in  itself,  than 
can  the  intellect.  Without  the  acts  which  the  heart  pro- 
duces, we  should  not  even  have  an  idea  of  a  life  of  the  heart. 
We  would  never  have  invented  the  name.  In  regard  to  the 
life  of  the  heart,  then,  we  must  proceed  as  we  did  in  regard  to 
the  life  of  the  intellect.  We  must  ask,  not  what  the  heart  is, 
(to  this  there  is  no  answer,)  but  what  the  heart  does.  Well, 
if  the  heart  does  something,  it  loves.  It  is  its  property  to 
love,  as  it  is  the  property  of  the  plant  to  vegetate,  and  the 


44  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

property  of  the  intellect  to  think.  It  loves,  some  one  will 
say,  but  it  hates  also.  Certainly  it  does.  How  can  it  love 
without  hating  ?  How  walk  towards  the  east  without  turn- 
ing your  back  on  the  West  ?  How  love  a  thing  without  hat- 
ing its  opposite  ?  This  hatred  is  the  necessary  counterpart 
of  love.  This  hatred  is  love  reflected  back  on  itself,  unless, 
indeed,  you  choose  to  say  that  love  is  the  necessary  counter- 
part of  hatred,  or  that  love  is  reflected  hatred.  This  would 
place  hatred  in  the  front  and  love  in  the  rear  of  our  moral 
life,  and  would  be  equivalent  to  saying  that  the  life  of  the 
heart  consists,  not  as  we  said,  in  loving,  but  in  hating. 
There  would  be  no  alternative  between  these  definitions,  and 
as  no  man  would  dare  to  say,  or  could  even  think,  that  the 
life  of  the  heart  consists  in  hating,  every  one  would  be  con- 
strained to  admit  that  the  life  of  the  heart  consists  in  loving. 
But  why,  then,  do  we  not  say  that  to  live  with  the  heart 
is  both  to  love  and  to  hate  ?  We  do  not  say  it,  because  ha- 
tred is  not  the  true  object  of  the  heart ;  because,  as  we  have 
said,  the  heart  hates  only  by  contrast,  and  because  it  loves. 
Because  it  is  impossible  for  an  artist,  in  employing  the  power 
of  fire,  to  produce  fire  without  making  ashes,  shall  we  con- 
clude that  the  ashes  which  form  the  residuum  of  combustion, 
are  the  object  and  the  end  of  the  artist's  labors  ?  Hatred 
forms  the  ashes  of  the  fire  which  love  kindles  in  our  hearts, 
but  it  is  not  on  these  ashes  that  the  heart  lives.  Hatred  is 
only  a  form  of  love  ;  love  only  is  real,  love  alone  is  some- 
thing. Love  leads,  it  is  true,  to  a  sort  of  hatred  ;  but  no  sort 
of  hatred  can  lead  to  love.  He  who  begins  with  hatred  will 
end  with  hatred.  Nay,  more  ;  he  who  begins  with  hatred 
does  not,  we  may  rest  assured,  hate  what  he  ought  to  hate. 
He  perhaps  imagines  that  he  hates  evil ;  but  if  he  loves  not 
what  is  good,  he  does  not  hate  evil  as  evil,  as  sin,  as  enmity 
with  God.  He  hates  it  for  some  other  reason  (and  there  are 
many  different  reasons),  than  because  it  is  evil.  Nothing, 
but  the  love  of  goodness  begets  a  true  hatred  of  evil. 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  45 

We  repeat  then,  brethren,  that  as  regar  !s  the  heart,  life 
is  nothing  but  love.  The  hatred  which  springs  not  from 
love,  the  hatred  which  is  not  a  form  of  love,  hatred  in  itself 
and  for  itself,  is  not  a  life,  but  on  the  contrary,  a  death  of  the 
heart.  It  is  no  more  the  life  of  the  heart  than  error  is  the 
life  of  reason.  If  you  insist  that  the  reason  which  errs,  and 
the  heart  which  hates,  live  notwithstanding,  you  must  admit 
that  a  life  whose  property  is  to  destroy,  strongly  resembles 
a  death  ;  and  we  may  say  of  persons  by  whom  the  heart 
which  was  given  them  to  love  is  employed  in  hating,  that 
they  are  dead  while  they  live. 

It  will  be  admitted,  brethren,  that  every  action,  to  have  a 
meaning,  must  have  an  object.  Thus,  the  action  of  the  in- 
tellect has  an  object,  and  this  object  is  truth.  The  heart 
also  must  have  an  object,  and  if  this  object  is  not  the  unison 
of  all  moral  beings  and  the  happiness  of  all  sensible  beings, 
what  is  it  ?  It  must  of  necessity  be  the  opposite.  It  is,  in- 
stead of  unison,  discord ;  instead  of  the  happiness,  it  is  the 
misery  of  all  beings.  There  is  no  means  of  escaping  from 
this  conclusion  when  once  the  other  is  rejected,  unless  by 
saying  that  the  life  of  the  heart  has  no  object.  But  to  say  this 
were  to  say  that  this  life  has  no  existence,  and  that  the  heart 
is  no  more  than  a  word. 

The  life  of  the  heart,  then,  if  it  has  one,  is  love.  And 
this  life  has  two  opposites,  or,  if  you  will,  it  is  subject  to  two 
deaths,  the  one  of  wliich  is  called  egotism,  the  other  hatred. 
If  the  life  of  the  heart  is  to  love,  the  heart  is  dead  when  it 
loves  itself  only,  the  heart  is  dead  when  it  hates.  But  these 
two  deaths,  properly  speaking,  constitute  only  one.  For,  on 
the  one  hand,  hatred  is  not  conceived  without  egotism.  It  is 
impossible  to  form  an  idea  of  a  man,  whose  heart,  given  up 
to  hatred,  should  at  the  same  time  be  detached  from  his  own 
interests,  and  ready  to  sacrifice  them.  It  is  even  probable 
that  those  whom  he  hates  are  those  who  stand  in  his  way,  or 
give  him  umbrage ;    those  in  whom  some  of  his  appetites 


46  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

have  encountered  opposition.  No  man  hates  for  the  sake  of 
hating.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  impossible  for  the  egotist  to 
confine  himself  to  egotism ;  that  is,  to  love  himself  exclu- 
sively, without  hating  others ;  those,  at  least,  whose  preten- 
sions or  rights  encounter  his ;  those  who,  by  word  or  action, 
have  offended  him  in  one  or  other  of  his  interests.  Hatred 
is  only  egotism  in  its  most  decided  form,  its  necessary  deve- 
lopment, the  poisonous  fruit  of  a  poisonous  root.  If  egotism 
is  a  death,  hatred  is  a  living  death.  Might  we  not  add  that 
the  heart  cannot  be  empty,  and  that  egotism  is  not  able  to  fill 
it ;  that  hatred  bears  more  resemblance  to  life ;  that  hatred, 
though  a  depraved  action  of  the  heart,  is  still  an  action ;  that 
it  gives  the  heart  occupation,  which  it  always  needs,  and 
that  for  this  additional  reason  if  we  do  not  love  we  must 
hate? 

Let  us  now  return  to  the  point  from  which  we  set  out.- 
There  are  in  the  world  several  kinds  of  life,  of  which  that 
of  man  is  one.  In  man  himself  there  are  several  kinds  of 
life  ;  and  we  have  already  distinguished  them.  Let  us  now 
observe  that  no  life,  either  in  the  world  or  in  man,  is  equiva- 
lent to  any  other  life.  The  life  of  the  plant  is  inferior  to 
that  of  the  animal,  the  life  of  the  animal  inferior  to  that  of 
the  man,  and  in  man  himself  the  life  of  the  body  is  beneath 
that  of  the  intellect,  that  of  the  intellect  beneath  moral  life. 
This  is  because  these  three  lives,  portioned  out  among  other 
beings,  meet  together  only  in  man,  and  correspond  to  three 
worlds  which  have  not  the  same  value  in  our  eyes,  the  mate- 
rial, the  intellectual,  and  the  moral  world.  Ask  the  first 
peasant  you  meet,  and  he  will  tell  you  without  prompting 
that  to  be  intelligent  is  far  better  than  to  be  handsome,  and 
that  to  be  good  is  far  better  than  to  be  intelligent.  On  this 
point  there  is  no  hesitancy,  no  disagreement  among  mankind. 
Matter  and  form  are  far  inferior  to  knowledge,  and  knowledge 
cannot  be  put  on  a  level  with  love.  Moreover,  what  is  it 
that  constitutes  the  value  of  each  of  these  lives  ?     Its  rela- 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  47 

tion  with  a  superior  life,  the  faculty  which  it  has  of  reaching 
it.  Matter  is  of  value  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  subordinate  and 
does  service  to  intellect,  and  intellect  is  degraded  when  it 
does  not  terminate  in  love.  If  love  in  order  to  find  objects 
and  exercises  has  need  of  intellect  and  matter,  love  has  in 
itself  dignity  and  beauty :  we  cannot,  it  is  true,  conceive  it 
separated  from  intellect,  but  it  exists  not  for  intellect  while 
intellect  exists  for  it.  Now  may  we  not  say  of  a  being  which 
unites  in  itself  several  lives,  that  if  it  wants  the  principal 
life,  that  for  which  it  has  received  all  the  others,  it  lives  not, 
although  it  possesses  the  others ;  because  these  others  were 
not  its  end,  which  must  be  sought  in  the  life  of  which  it  is 
destitute.  It  were  different  to  be  deprived  of  a  life  to  which 
one  has  not  been  destined,  and  for  which  one  has  not  been 
organized.  Thus  the  plant  lives  although  it  does  not  feel, 
for  it  has  not  been  made  to  feel ;  and  the  animal  lives  although 
it  does  not  think,  because  it  has  not  been  made  to  think :  but 
for  man  made  to  love,  man  whose  destination  is  love,  it  were 
vain  to  feel  and  vain  to  think ;  if  he  loves  not,  he  lives  not. 
Thus  the  higher  life  of  each  being  is  its  true  life,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  which  it  may  be  regarded  as  dead. 

Each  of  our  subordinate  lives,  then,  is  something  in  rela- 
tion to  the  higher  or  true  life  ;  but  in  itself,  and  separately 
it  is  nothing.  When  the  higher  life,  which  is  the  end,  is 
wanting,  it  is  not  correct  to  say  that  there  is  less  of  life ; 
there  is  no  half,  nor  third,  nor  two-thirds  of  life ;  there  is 
either  life  or  no  life.  No  doubt  we  may  love  more  or  love 
less ;  here  degrees  are  easily  understood  ;  here  the  differ- 
ences may  be  endless  ;  but  between  the  being  which  loves  in 
any  degree  whatever,  and  that  which  loves  not,  there  is  all 
the  difference  between  something  and  nothing,  existence  and 
non-existence,  life  and  death.  I  say  not  only  between  that 
which  loves  and  that  which  vegetates,  but  between  that  which 
loves  and  that  which  thinks,  although  there  is  also  a  consid- 
erable distance  between  that  which  thinks  and  that  which 


48  GOSPEL    ST[JDIES. 

vegetates ;  but  considerable  as  it  is,  it  is  as  nothing  in  com- 
parison with  the  distance  between  the  being  that  loves,  and 
the  being  that  loves  not.  Truth  assuredly  is  a  great  thing, 
and  yet  if  you  do  not  set  truth  above  love,  and,  consequent- 
ly, set  it  beneath,  you  say  rightly,  that  without  love  truth  is 
useless.  Go  still  further,  and  say  boldly,  that  without  love 
there  is  no  truth,  since  there  is  no  unity  or  happiness.  Does 
this  surprise  you  ?  Think  better  of  it.  The  word  truth  does 
not  designate  merely  an  accurate  view  of  the  mind,  it  does 
not  designate  an  idea  only,  it  has  something  more  substan- 
tial ;  it  designates  a  thing,  a  fact,  a  relation.  Truth  exists 
in  action  before  it  exists  in  idea,  in  things  before  it  is  in 
words.  A  thing  is  true  when  it  is  what  it  ought  to  be,  as  a 
word  is  true  when  it  says  what  it  ought  to  say ;  a  thing,  in 
like  manner,  is  false  when  it  is  not  what  it  ought  to  be.  If  a 
man,  then,  is  not  what  he  ought  to  be,  and  does  not  what  he 
ought  to  do,  it  would  be  in  vain  for  him  to  know  the  truth, 
he  would  not  be  in  the  truth  according  to  the  meaning  of  St. 
John,  who  says  that  we  know  that  we  are  in  the  truth  by 
loving  our  brethren.  Truth,  in  the  creation  of  God,  consists 
in  a  complete  correspondence  among  things.  Now  he  who 
loves  not  does  violence  to  this  general  correspondence  which 
constitutes  truth,  and,  as  much  as  in  him  lies,  introduces 
falsehood  into  the  bosom  of  truth.  There  is  no  room,  there- 
fore, to  draw  the  distinction  and  say.  Such  a  one  has  not  love, 
but  he  has  truth.     No,  if  he  loves  not,  he  has  not  truth. 

On  this  point  the  Gospel  exhibits  not  the  least  indecision, 
the  least  obscurity.  It  uniformly  gives  supremacy  to  the  life 
of  the  heart,  or  to  love  ;  it  makes  every  thing  in  man  tend 
or  aspire  towards  love  as  the  end  and  reality  of  human  life. 
Jesus  Christ  never  proposed  knowledge  to  his  disciples  as  an 
end,  but  as  a  mean.  The  end  is  that  all  may  be  made  com- 
plete in  unity.  Now  unity  is  love.  St.  Paul  declares  that 
knowledge  puffeth  up,  but  that  love  edifieth.  Weigh  well 
these  words.     It  does  not  say  mistaken  knowledge  or  error, 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  49 

but  knowledge  in  general,  and,  consequently,  truth  as  well 
as  error.  Love  edifieth.  Weigh  this  expression  also.  To 
edify  is  to  construct,  to  build,  to  erect  a  solid  monument  or 
habitable  abode ;  in  two  words,  to  produce  a  positive  result. 
This  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  word  edify.  Thus,  then,  in 
truth  (if  it  is  only  thought)  there  is  inflation,  wind,  nothing ; 
in  love  is  the  positive  and  the  real.  Such  is  the  doctrine  of 
St.  Paul.  It  is  also  evidently  that  of  St.  John,  when  he  says 
that  he  who  loves  God  knows  him.  Besides,  knowledge  is 
subordinate  to  love ;  but  here  love  is  presented  as  the  means 
and  condition  of  knowledge.  This  brings  us  back  to  what 
we  lately  said,  namely,  that  he  who  has  truth,  if  he  has  not 
love,  has  not  even  truth.  And  which  of  you,  brethren,  has 
not  at  present  in  his  mind  the  magnificent  passage  in  which 
St.  Paul,  humbling  human  and  even  angelical  knowledge  at 
the  feet  of  love,  exclaims,  "  Though  1  speak  with  the  tongues 
of  men  and  of  angels,  and  have  not  charity,  I  am  nothing. 
Though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  know  all  mysteries, 
and  though  I  possess  all  knowledge,  but  have  not  charity,  I 
am  nothing."     1  Cor.  xiii.  1,  2. 

It  is  not  even  enough  to  oppose  a  whole  life  of  thought  to 
a  whole  life  of  love.  The  things  are  not  thus  measured. 
Here  quantity,  extent,  duration,  are  nothing ;  nature  is  all. 
All  the  sublimest  thoughts  of  all  the  profoundest  philoso- 
phers of  all  the  ages  of  the  world,  when  weighed  in  the 
balance,  are  not  worth  one  single  movement  of  charity.  If 
it  be  objected  that  great  thoughts  come  from  the  heart ;  that 
there  are  things  which  cannot  reach  the  intellect  without 
coming  througl)  the  soul  ;  and  that  there  is,  perhaps,  some 
love  in  some  of  the  speculations  of  these  great  intellects,  we 
are  far  from  gainsaying  this.  We  joyfully  place  to  the  ac- 
count of  the  higher  and  true  life  all  the  love  which  may  exist 
in  their  thoughts;  but  we,  nevertheless,  maintain  that  in 
those  fine  thoughts  in  which  there  is  love,  it  is  love  which 
4 


50  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

constitutes  life ;  that  thought,  as  thought,  is  not  life  ;  that  the 
peasant  who  loves  is  superior  in  dignity  to  the  philosopher 
who  loves  not ;  that  a  single  act,  a  single  movement  of  true 
love,  carries  it  over  the  most  brilliant  discoveries,  and  the 
sublimest  thoughts. 

Now,  if  we  are  correct  in  the  observations  which  we 
have  made,  we  are  entitled  to  affirm  again  what  we  affirmed 
at  the  outset.  St.  Paul,  we  said,  is  glad  because  the  Colos- 
sians  live,  or  because  they  have  passed  from  death  unto  life. 
Truly  life  is  love ;  the  Colossians  live  since  they  love. 

But  St.  Paul  does  not  say  simply  that  they  love  ;  he  says 
that  they  love  in  the  spirit.  Now,  if  he  adds  these  words,  if 
he  distinguishes  between  several  kinds  of  love,  it  is  not,  un- 
doubtedly, to  point  out  the  weakest  and  least  excellent,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  to  point  out  the  best. 

Love  in  the  spirit,  says  the  Apostle.  What  is  this 
spirit?  Is  it  spirit  in  general;  spirit  in  opposition  to  matter; 
spirit  considered  as  the  most  excellent  part  of  ourselves,  so 
that,  instead  of  love  in  the  spirit,  it  had  been  equally  well 
styled  spiritual  love  ?  We  are  persuaded  that  Paul  meant 
love  in  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  love  which  the  Spirit  of  God 
teaches  and  inspires  ;  but  we  might,  without  danger,  consent 
to  the  former  interpretation,  well  assured  that,  unconscious- 
ly to  those  who  propose  it,  it  includes  that  which  we  pre- 
fer; well  assured  that  in  the  first  we  shall  find  the  second. 

What,  in  fact,  is  meant  by  the  term  sj^irit  without  the 
addition  of  the  name  of  God,  as,  for  example,  in  the  passage, 
"  The  spirit  is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak  ?" 

*  It  means  that  better  part  of  us,  which  St.  Paul  terms 

*  The  paragraphs  with  an  asterisk',  are  mere  notes  from  a  first  copy 
which  the  Author  had  not  been  able  to  reduce  into  proper  form.  They 
are  introduced  here  to  supply  blanks,  and  indicate  the  train  of  his 
ideas,  the  connection  of  which  could  not  o^her^ise  be  perceived. 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  51 

me,  (Rom.  vii.  14-16,)  and  which  the  Spirit  of  God  has  come 
to  set  at  liberty  ;  it  is  the  part  of  our  being  by  which  we 
hold  communion  with  God.  It  is  neither  the  body  nor  tho 
soul ;  it  is  the  perception  of  the  divine  and  eternal.  To  love 
in  the  spirit  then  is,  in  every  case,  to  love  according  to,  or  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  just  as  to  love  according  to  the  Spirit  of 
God,  is  the  same  thing  as  to  love  spiritually.  We  are  cer- 
tain, then,  to  find  the  one  interpretation  in  the  other. 

*  Let  us  attend  to  the  first ;  to  love  according  the  Spirit 
of  God.  Here  again  it  will  be  said  that  the  original  signifies 
to  love  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  It  is  of  little  consequence. 
He  who  loves  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  doubtless  loves  according 
to  the  Spirit  of  God.  Now  the  Spirit  of  God  is  first  a  spirit, 
and  secondly  the  Spirit  of  God. 

*  Love  according  to  the  Spirit  is  a  spiritual  love ;  in 
other  words,  that  which  loves  in  us  is.no  part  of  our  carnal 
being,  but  that  new  man,  whose  object  is  the  true,  the  just, 
the  divine,  the  immortal. 

*  Love  according  to  the  Spirit  then,  is  not  that  gross 
love  which  produces  or  stimulates  concupiscence,  and  of 
which  it  is  said,  that  the  will  of  the  flesh  is  death.  And  we 
extend  the  meaning  of  this  expression,  (will  of  the  flesh, 
Rom.  viii.  6,)  to  all  the  loves  of  simple  taste,  preference, 
suitableness,  community  of  party-spirit,  community  of  fear 
or  hatred,  custom. 

*  Neither  is  love  according  to  the  Spirit  an  interested 
affection.  These  two  words  both  apparently  and  really  con- 
tradict one  another,  and  yet  it  is  certain  that  we  may  delude 
ourselves  in  regard  to  them.  We  love  people  (with  a  cer- 
tain affection,)  for  the  happiness  which  they  give  or  promise, 
for  the  respect  which  they  secure  us,  for  the  pleasure  which 
we  find  in  intercourse  with  them,  and  the  indulgence  which 
they  show  to  our  tastes.  Interest,  egotism  even  mingle  with 
the  purest  affections — a  mother's  love. 


52  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

*  Love  according  to  the  Spirit  is  not  natural  affection, 
even  detached  from  sense  and  egotism.  Not  that  the  Spirit 
condemns  natural  affections ;  on  the  contrary,  it  consecrates 
and  renovates  them.  Their  absence  proves  his  absence  or 
withdrawal,  but  their  presence  does  not  prove  his  presence. 
These  instincts  are  lovely  with  a  beauty  which  is  not  per- 
sonal to  us,  but  with  the  beauty  of  God,  as  the  azure  of  the 
sky,  the  perfume  of  flowers,  the  melody  of  sounds ;  it  is  the 
beauty  of  God  in  the  moral  world.  It  is  necessary  that  there 
should  be  the  idea  of  duty,  obedience,  principle,  adherence  to 
universal  order.  This  obedience  is  not  love,  but  love  with- 
out this  principle,  is  no  more  love  according  to  the  Spirit. 

But  this  Spirit  of  which  the  Apostle  speaks,  is  the  Spirit 
of  God.  And  you  imagine  not  that  the  Spirit  of  God  can 
inspire  man  with  an  affection  in  which  God  himself  has  no 
part.  For  it  is  the  Spirit  of  a  jealous  God,  the  Spirit  of  God 
who  created  us  only  for  himself,  the  Spirit  of  God  who  wills 
to  have  us  wholly ;  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  has  commanded 
us  to  love  him  with  all  our  heart,  with  all  our  soul,  with 
all  our  mind,  and  with  all  our  strength.  If  it  is  so,  how 
should  there  be  in  our  life  a  single  movement,  in  our  soul  a 
single  point,  from  which  God  could  be  absent,  from  which 
God  could  be  excluded  ?  If  it  is  so,  what  portion  will  God 
have  in  our  affections?  Do  we  give  God  a  part?  Does 
God  share  with  his  creature  ?  And  if  he  permits  us  to  love 
Another  being  than  himself,  can  it  be  otherwise  than  in  him, 
and  for  him  ?  Will  not  God  be  present  in  every  object  of 
our  love  ?  Will  he  not  be  its  sanction,  its  tie,  its  beauty,  its 
force,  and  also  its  limit  ?  Assuredly  he  does  not  forbid 
these  affections ;  on  the  contrary,  he  commands  them.  The 
second  commandment  like  unto  the  first,  is  to  love  our 
brethren,  and  observe  that  even  in  this  commandment,  all 
God's  rights  are  reserved.  If  he  has  a  right  to  command  us 
to  love  our  brethren,  it  is  because  in  the  first  place  he  has  a 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  53 

right  to  be  loved.  But  though  he  should  not  have  com- 
manded this  love,  though  he  should  only  have  permitted  it, 
it  would  only  be  on  condition  of  his  ruling  our  affections, 
and  finding  us  always  ready  to  sacrifice  them  to  him,  to  tear 
our  hearts  from  them  when  they  displease  him,  in  fine,  to 
hate  them  rather  than  prefer  them  to  him.  Such  is  the 
only  mode  of  loving  according  to  the  Spirit  of  God.  To  love 
otherwise,  is  to  love  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  world  and 
the  devil,  which  are  the  enemies  of  God. 

What  did  we  say  above  of  the  object  of  this  love  ?  This 
object  is  unity,  but  doubtless  a  complete  unity,  a  unity  em- 
bracing whatever  is  made  to  be  united.  True  love  ought  to 
tend  towards  this  unity,  and  rest  in  it  only.  Do  you  believe, 
then,  that  after  having  embraced  all  the  creatures,  it  can  stop 
short  of  the  Creator  ?  Do  you  believe  that  this  love  can  em- 
brace all,  unite  all,  except  Him  who  is  the  very  principle  of 
all  love,  the  author  of  all  love,  and  who  consequently  must 
be  the  first,  the  supreme  object  of  all  love  ?  Strange  unity, 
brethren  !  or  rather  what  rupture,  what  rending,  what  con- 
tradiction !  The  world  on  one  side,  God  on  the  other  !  Love 
refusing  to  mount  to  the  source  of  love !  Man  refusing  to 
apply  to  God  that  strength  of  love  which  he  has  received  from 
God  himself!  Man  withdrawing  his  love  from  the  only  Be- 
ing perfectly  lovely,  and  lavishing  it  upon  what  is  only  lovely 
by  him,  lovely  in  him  !  or  rather  man,  with  a  mockery  still 
more  insulting,  consenting  to  love  God,  but  after  all  others, 
less  than  all  others,  as  if  to  act  thus  were  to  love  him !  as  if 
to  throw  to  him  the  remains  of  our  heart,  (I  tremble  to  think 
how  true  this  description  is)  were  not  to  offer  him  our  hatred 
and  contempt !  Once  more,  why  do  you  speak  of  unity  ? 
No !  the  unity  which  is  not  complete  is  not  unity.  No ;  you 
appear  to  unite  yourselves  to  a  particular  order,  only  to  se- 
parate yourselves  from  general  order.  No ;  your  attach- 
ment to  the  jsreatures,  serves  only  to  manifest  your  separa- 


54  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

tion  from  the  Creator,  and  prove  that  you  are  out  of  order 
and  unity. 

And  what  is  this  inferior  unity  on  which  you  plume  your- 
self, and  which  you  pretend  to  realize  in  your  human  affec- 
tions ?  How  can  it  be  real  ?  How  can  truth  dwell  with 
falsehood  ?  How,  incapable  as  you  are  of  loving  the  only 
Being  perfectly  lovely,  can  you  be  capable  of  truly  loving 
your  brethren  ?  How,  after  such  fearful  injustice,  can  you 
be  just?  How  can  hearts  so  unnatural  flatter  themselves 
that  they  love?  Admit  that  all  love  of  a  higher  nature  is 
impossible  to  those  who  do  not  love  God,  and  that  all  love 
which  is  not  according  to  the  Spirit  of  God,  cannot  be  a  love 
according  to  the  Spirit. 

The  Gospel  does  not  authorize  us  to  conceive  the  idea  of 
two  independent  unities,  each  of  which  might  be  a  unity. 
They  are  unities  only  in  virtue  of  their  relation  and  natural 
correspondence.  Unity  among  men  is  only  a  continuation  of 
the  unity  between  men  and  God.  Jesus  Christ  asked  his 
Father  that  his  disciples  might  be  one,  but  he  did  not  separate 
this  request  from  another,  namely,  that  his  disciples  might  be 
one  with  him,  and  with  his  Father.  He  does  not  say  to  his 
Father  merely,  "  T  pray  that  they  may  be  one,"  but,  "  I  pray 
that  they  may  be  one  in  us."  It  is  thus  only,  according  to 
the  declaration  of  our  divine  Master,  that  this  unity  will  be 
consummated.     John  xvii.  23. 

We  now  know  what  is  meant  by  affection  or  love  in  the 
Spirit.  It  is  above  and  beyond  all  our  attachments  by  the 
senses,  by  interest,  and  by  nature,  which  we  have  enumera- 
ted. It  is  an  affection  of  which  God  is  the  centre,  which  in- 
cludes in  it  duty,  which  attaches  itself  to  the  soul,  and  aspires 
to  eternity. 

To  know  what  it  is,  it  was  only  necessary  for  us,  so  to 
speak,  to  name  it.  The  name  alone  has  informed  us  of  all. 
But  could  we  have  defined  that  which  is  not,  and  cannot  be  ? 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  55 

Could  we  have  developed  only  what  is  contained  in  a  simple 
idea  ?  Could  we  have  described  only  an  imaginary  object  ? 
And  in  order  to  define  love  in  the  Spirit,  have  we  no  other 
and  better  method  than  this  cold  analysis  ?  Ought  we,  in 
one  word,  to  confine  our  exposition  to  such  words  as  these — 
Such  would  be  love  in  the  Spirit  if  this  love  existed,  if  this 
love  was  possible  ?  In  truth,  would  we  have  made  much 
progress,  and  employed  our_time  and  yours  to  good  purpose  ? 
What  would  it  avail  you  to  know  that  which  is  not,  which 
never  was,  and  which  never  will  be  ?  But  it  is  impossible 
that  it  should  be  so.  If  this  love  was  not  in  the  nature  of 
things,  if  it  had  not  a  foundation  in  God  and  in  us,  rest  as- 
sured that  we  would  not  have  even  this  idea  of  it.  We  could 
not  have  described  to  you  a  thing  which  could  not  exist. 
This  love  in  the  Spirit  is  possible,  is  real.  I  appeal  to  its 
name. 

Let  us  look  for  it  then  upon  the  earth  in  human  hearts,  if 
the  earth  can  offer  us  an  example  of  it.  Let  us  interrogate 
history,  our  own  recollections,  and  the  facts  which  are  pass- 
ing around  us.  Let  us  ask  from  the  past,  from  the  present, 
from  ourselves,  images  in  which  we  may  contemplate  it,  not 
as  an  idea,  but  as  a  reality.  But  could  our  eye  long  hesi- 
tate ?  Would  it  not,  before  fixing  itself  on  any  man,  rise  at 
once  to  the  Captain  of  our  salvation  ?  Did  he  love  according 
to  the  Spirit  or  according  to  the  world — he  to  whom  the  Spirit 
was  given  without  measure,  he  who,  living  in  the  world,  was 
not  of  the  world,  and  would  not  pray  for  the  world  ?  Of  a 
truth  all  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  love  in  the  Spirit  were 
manifested  in  each  of  the  affections  of  Jesus,  and  an  easier 
process  of  learning  their  nature  would  have  been  to  seek  them 
in  him,  than  even  in  the  nature  of  spiritual  affection ;  for  who 
would  not  perceive  that  the  glory  of  the  Father  was  his  first 
object,  and  that  the  whole  purpose  of  his  life  on  earth  was  in-' 
eluded  in  the  great  work  of  manifesting  the  name  of  God  to 
those  whom  God  had  siven  him  out  of  the  world. 


56  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

What  was  the  noblest  and  first  of  the  ties  between  man 
and  man,  according  to  him  whose  whole  life  exemplified  the 
memorable  declaration,  "  Whosoever  will  do  the  will  of  my 
Father  in  heaven,  the  same  is'  my  brother,  and  sister,  and 
mother?"  No  doubt  natural  afl^ections,  and,  consequently, 
particular  attachments,  were  not  unknown  to  him  who  wept 
over  the  closed  tomb  of  Lazarus,  and  the  open  sepulchre  of 
Jerusalem.  But  to  what  a  height  did  he  elevate  these  par- 
ticular affections  above  their  sphere  of  individuality,  and  in 
the  sphere  to  which  he  transports  them  with  himself,  who 
could  still  recognize  them  ?  Who  could  see  in  them  only 
private  affections  ?  Who  could  suspect  him  of  having  for 
one  instant  sought  himself  in  the  objects  of  his  affection  ? 
Who  could  show  us  in  any  of  these  affections  the  mere  im- 
press of  instinct  or  custom  ?  Who,  on  the  contrary,  is  not 
forced  to  acknowledge,  that  if  instinct  and  habit  had  any  in- 
fluence in  the  ties  which  he  formed  upon  earth,  they  both  dis- 
appear in  the  idea  of  holiness ;  that  with  him  love  was  a 
virtue,  and  that,  if  we  may  so  speak,  he  added  charity  to 
each  of  his  affections  1  To  him  it  belonged,  according  to  the 
expression  of  St.  John,  to  teach  us  what  love  is.  It  was  he 
who  brought  into  the  world  both  the  name  and  the  thing,  by 
dedicating  to  it,  by  his  life  and  by  his  death,  the  principle  of 
a  love,  not  obscure  like  instinct,  but  luminous  like  will;  a 
love  in  which  neither  sin,  nor  self-interest,  nor  nature,  nor 
accident,  has  any  part ;  a  love  in  which  the  immortal  spirit 
seeks  the  immortal  spirit ;  a  love  wholly  united  and  amalga- 
mated with  the  love  of  God,  and  which,  come  from,  rises 
again  to  God ;  a  love,  in  fine,  which  is  not  a  production  of 
nature,  but  a  fruit  of  grace.  It  was  he  who,  from  his  child- 
hood at  Nazareth  until  his  last  sigh  at  Golgotha,  kept  the 
standard  of  charity  at  such  an  elevation  that  it  has  ever  been 
impossible  to  confound  it  with  any  other  standard,  or  not  per- 
ceive  that  the  love  which  was  spit  upon  at  the  judgment-hall, 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  57 

cursed   upon  the  way  to  Calvary,  and  crucified  between  two 
thieves,  is-a  love  different  from  all  other  kinds  of  love. 

However,  if  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus  that  we  have  known  what 
love  is,  it  was  manifested  in  him  alone  for  no  other  purpose 
than  that  it  might  be  diffused.  If  not  so,  to  what  purpose 
would  it  have  been  manifested  ?  This  divine  love  became  a 
school.  The  Holy  Spirit  taught  it  to  all  to  whom  he  taught 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  They  did 
more  than  announce,  they  reflected  his  virtues;  and  in  those 
living  mirrors,  that  which  appeared  most  clearly,  that  which 
first  struck  all  observers,  was  love  in  the  Spirit.  They  were 
not  of  the  world,  as  he  was  not  of  the  world.  Hence  their 
affections  were  not  of  the  world  ;  or,  at  least,  what  was  mor- 
tal in  them  was  swallowed  up  of  life.  St.  Paul,  St.  Peter, 
St.  John,  thousands  of  others  with  them,  and  thousands  of 
others  after  them,  loved  in  the  Spirit.  We  may  recognize  in 
them,  through  the  veil  of  their  humanity,  this  same  heavenly 
affection  distinct  and  entire.  The  life  of  each  of  them,  not 
in  virtue  of  any  change  or  of  any  particular  distinction,  but 
simply  inasmuch  as  they  were  Christians,  represented  it 
faithfully.  Their  life,  like  that  of  their  Master,  defines  love 
in  the  Spirit  better  than  words.  Their  love,  in  crossing  the 
ocean,  has  left  a  luminous  track  behind,  which  cannot  be 
effaced,  and  which  will  to  all  ages  point  out  their  passage  on 
the  road  to  sacrifice.  Any  one  of  them  would  suffice  to  un- 
fold to  us  this  new  sense  and  new  power  communicated  to 
human  nature.  We  might  confine  ourselves  to  St.  Paul; 
we  might  confine  ourselves  to  the  ^ew  lines  which  precede 
our  text.  Love  in  the  Spirit  is  there  shown  in  all  its  fulness. 
Every  word  brings  out  some  feature ;  every  word  teaches  us 
that  St.  Paul  loves  those  to  whom  he  writes,  and  loves  them 
not  according  to  the  world,  but  according  to  the  Spirit.  From 
that  time,  brethren,  the  inheritance  of  the  love  of  the  Son  of 
man  was  no  more  repudiated  than  the  inheritance  of  his  sor- 
4* 


58  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

rows  ;  in  other  words,  the  people  of  God  have  always  suffered, 
always  loved.  That  which  perpetuates  itself  in  the  living 
Church,  in  spite  of  all  vicissitudes  and  all  revolutions,  that 
which,  so  to  speak,  establishes  its  identity  from  age  to  age, 
is  love  in  the  Spirit. 

Facts  thus  combine  with  reason  to  teach  us  what  is  meant 
by  love  in  the  Spirit.  After  all  that  we  have  said,  would  it 
not  be  strange  if  we  were  called  to  prove  that  this  love  is 
true  love,  and  consequently  true  life  ?  We  have  seen  that 
every  other  affection,  from  the  guiltiest  to  the  most  innocent, 
is  worldly  affection,  and  consequently  transitory  and  perish- 
able as  the  world  ;  all  remembrance  and  trace  of  which 
must  perish  in  the  splendor  of  eternity,  just  as  the  stars  of 
night  are  lost  in  the  first  rays  of  the  sun.  All  I  now  ask  is, 
can  a  true  life  have  an  end  ?  Has  that  which  dies  ever 
lived  ?  If  we  admit  that  whatever  is  true  is  eternal,  are  we 
not  constrained  to  admit  that  whatever  is  not  eternal  is  not 
true  ?  These  affections  were  lovely,  you  say.  Yes,  we 
admit  it ;  lovely  in  divine  beauty.  But  no  doubt  the  sky 
also  is  lovely,  and  the  earth  also  is  lovely  ;  yet  this  will  not 
prevent  the  hand  which  made  the  heavens  from  rolling  them 
up  like  a  scroll  ;  this  will  not  prevent  this  globe,  with  all  its 
magnificence  and  riches,  from  vanishing  at  last.  Of  all  that 
is  according  to  nature,  nothing  will  remain;  for  nature  is 
only  the  form  of  a  divine  idea,  whereas  of  that  which  is  ac- 
cording to  the  Spirit,  nothing  will  pass  away  ;  for  the  Spirit 
is  God  himself.  "  Charity,"  saith  the  Apostle,  "  never  fail- 
eth ;"  but  he  is  there  speaking  of  love  in  the  Spirit.  We 
might  conceive  how  love  might  preserve  our  forms  of  love, 
as  amber  preserves  the  patch  of  sea- weed  around  which  it  is 
formed  ;  but  we  could  not  conceive  how  this  patch  of  sea- 
weed, how  love,  according  to  the  world,  should  preserve 
itself. 

What  exposes  us  to  illusion  in  this  respect  is,  that  we  see 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  59 

shades  of  resemblance  where  there  are  none  ;  that  we  sup- 
pose intermediate  ties  between  the  flesh  and  the  Spirit,  which 
truth  disowns.  The  Scripture  nowhere  speaks  of  any  thing 
which  is  neither  Spirit  nor  flesh.  Whatever  belongs  not  to  the 
Spirit,  or  hag  not  been  sanctified  by  the  Spirit,  is  of  the  flesh. 
Not,  indeed,  that  there  is  no  distinction  between  sinful  affec- 
tions and  purely  natural  affections;  but  both,  notwithstanding 
their  difference,  if  contrasted  with  the  affections  of  the  Spirit, 
are  reduced  to  a  single  class  by  one  same  character.  Being 
of  the  order  of  nature,  or  of  the  world,  and  not  of  the  order  of 
the  Spirit,  they  are  perishable  like  the  world.  They  perish 
with  it,  that  is  with  each  of  us,  in  proportion  as  in  regard  to  each 
of  us  the  world  perishes :  so  that  if  love  in  the  Spirit  has  not 
entered  our  hearts,  either  to  replace  them  or  to  immortalize 
them,  there  remains  at  our  departure  from  this  world,  nothing 
which  we  can  carry  away.  Thus,  then,  without  here  bring- 
ing  together  the  severest  denunciations  of  Scripture  against 
the  flesh  and  the  things  of  the  flesh  ;  without  attacking  the 
affections  of  the  flesh,  in  their  nature  or  their  principle;  and 
without  seeing  in  them  for  the  moment  any  other  character 
than  that  to  which  we  have  just  pointed,  namely,  mortality, 
we  apply  directly  to  every  affection  which  is  not  according 
to  the  Spirit  all  the  declarations  of  the  sacred  Book  as  to  the 
frailty  of  the  flesh.  So  that  when  we  read,  "  All  flesh  is 
grass,  and  all  the  glory  of  man  as  the  flower  of  the  grass," 
we  feel  as  if  we  were  reading  at  the  same  time,  All  love 
which  God  has  not  sanctified  by  his  Spirit  is  as  grass ;  and 
all  that  was  graceful  and  lovely  in  it,  all  the  charms  which 
it  shed  upon  our  life,  and  with  which  it  fascinated  our  im- 
agination, is  as  the  flower  of  the  grass.  The  wind  of  the 
Almighty  which  blows  upon  the  grass  and  the  flower,  may 
as  well  blow  upon  this  love,  and  wither  it  like  them.  When 
we  read  that  "  He  who  soweth  to  tiie  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh 
reap  corruption,"  the   meaning   we  give  it  is,  that  he   who 


60  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

seeks  life  in  the  natural  affections  cruelly  deceives  himself; 
that  after  the  enjoyment  of  a  few  years,  that  is,  of  a  few  in- 
stants, he  will  find  nothing  but  death  ;  and  when  the  objects 
shall  have  been  torn  from  him,  he  will  find  himself  absolutely 
destitute.  After  this,  I  do  not  ask  if  God  is  not  the  true  me- 
dium of  true  friendship ;  if  friendships  not  bearing  his  im- 
press can  be  very  true  or  very  pleasant  ;*  if  even  before  the 
death  which  carries  the  objects  naturally  away,  they  are  not 
exposed  to  a  violent  death ;  if  they  do  not  carry  in  them  a 
germ  of  corruption,  which  makes  them  die  long  before  us; 
if  the  best  are  not  troubled  by  storms  and  delusions ;  and  if 
even  after  our  death  we  do  not  die  in  the  heart  of  our'  dear- 
est friends.  Though  I  should  have  formed  the  most  romantic 
and  extravagant  idea  of  the  purity  and  constancy  of  their 
affections,  1  should  only  have  added  to  the  bitterness  of  this 
reflection,  namely — There  is  no  place  in  eternity  for  the 
sweetest  and  purest  attachments,  if  the  grace  of  God  does  not 
transform  them  from  the  earthly  affections  which  they  were, 
into  spiritual  and  heavenly  affections. 

I  have  perhaps  said  enough  to  alarm  you  ;  for  hell,  a 
perfect  hell,  is  in  that  empty  heart,  which  has  been  violently 
dissevered  from  its  affections,  and  the  very  remembrance  of 
them,,  without  being  united  to  God  ;  a  heart  which  now  lives 
only  to  feel  that  it  lives  not;  a  heart  which  has  need  of  love, 
as  the  lungs  have  need  of  air  and  the  body  of  food,  and  which 
finds  no  object  to  supply  this  want,  neither  the  perishable 
beings  of  which  it  has  lost  the  recollection,  nor  God  whom  it 
cannot  love. 

But  as  too  few  understand  that  hell  in  effect  is  there,  it 
was  necessary  that  Scripture  should  speak  in  distinct  lan- 

*  Sine  me  non  valet  nee  durabit  amicitia,  nee  est  vera  et  munda 
dilectio  quam  ego  non  copulo.  Without  me  no  friendship  is  strong,  or 
will  be  lasting :  neither  is  any  affection,  of  which  I  am  not  the  bond, 
rue  and  pure. — Imitation  of  Christ. 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  61 

guage,  and  pronounce  a  formal  malediction  against  the  flesh. 
It  has  accordingly  done  so ;  and  here  again,  all  that  it  says 
against  the  flesh  it  says  against  purely  worldly  aflections. 
Thus,  when  it  declares  that  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God,  we  understand  that  a  heart  entirely  filled 
with  earthly  affections,  were  they  free  from  every  other  fault 
save  that  of  being  earthly,  are  thereby  unworthy,  and  inca- 
pable of  heavenly  happiness.  And  when  it  declares  that  the 
will  of  the  flesh  is  death,  instead  of  confining  this  denuncia- 
tion to  the  impure  passions  which  human  corruption  has  de- 
corated with  the  name  of  love,  we  extend  it  to  all  the  attach- 
ments to  which  God  has  not  been  fully  admitted,  and  we 
interpret  it  ihus :  all  worldly  friendship  is  death.  Yes, 
death,  because  every  aff*ection  of  this  description  has  carried 
off*  a  heart  from  God ;  a  sin  which  deserves  death,  if  ever 
any  did  deserve  it. 

We  must  now  clearly  understand  that  if  St.  Paul  rejoices 
in  the  spiritual  affection  of  the  Colossians,  as  in  a  better  life, 
it  is  not  as  in  a  perfection  short  of  which  there  is  also  some- 
thing good  in  which  we  might  rejoice.  No,  he  does  not  re- 
joice in  the  love  of  the  Colossians  as  a  better  life,  but  as  life ; 
short  of  this  life  there  is  only  death.  His  joy  at  the  state  of 
the  Colossians  who  love  in  the  Spirit,  supposes  great  sadness 
on  account  of  those  who  are  not  in  the  same  state.  If  he 
congratulates  them  on  any  thing,  it  is  their  having  escaped 
from  death.  Could  he  then  have  any  congratulation  in  re- 
serve, though  it  might  be  less  lively,  for  those  who  love  not 
as  they  did  ?  Congratulation  !  O,  surely  not ;  but  charita- 
ble warnings,  earnest  entreaties  to  love  God  above  all,  to  love 
in  him  all  that  he  permit^  them  to  love  ;  exhortations  to 
place  their  heart  at  length  where  their  only  treasure  is,  and 
not  deprive  themselves  of  the  only  happiness  which  is  possi- 
ble after  the  eternal  disappearance  of  all  that  here  below 
constitutes  worldly  happiness.     St.  Paul  then  will  not  say  to 


62  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

them,  and  he  says  not  to  us,  Love  most  what  deserves  most 
to  be  loved,  aspire  to  a  superior  love  in  order  to  lead  a  supe- 
rior life,  let  your  ambition  be  to  secure  the  more  exquisite  de- 
lights of  a  purer  affection.  No  ;  he  speaks  to  them,  as  to  us, 
in  more  absolute  terms.  Love  in  the  Spirit,  and  love  in 
truth,  are  in  his  eyes  the  same  thing.  Where  the  Spirit  of 
God  is,  there  only  is  truth,  and  consequently  life ;  and  just 
as  the  Master  had  declared  that  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  those 
who  worship  him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth, 
the  disciple,  following  out  the  same  idea,  declares  in  like 
manner  that  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  that  those  who  worship  him 
must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth  ;  that  they  must  love 
in  spirit,  in  order  to  love  in  truth. 

But  the  more  absolute  we  perceive  St.  Paul  to  be  in  re- 
gard to  this  absolute  truth,  and  the  more  inflexible  as  to  this 
inflexible  necessity,  seeing  on  the  one  side  only  life,  and  on 
the  other  only  death,  the  better  will  we  understand  with  what 
feelings,  with  what  fulness,  with  what  exuberance  of  joy,  he 
wrote  to  a  Church,  a  whole  Church,  "I  have  learned" — 
What,  brethren  ?  That  the  Church  extends  ?  that  it  has 
gained  over  the  mighty  of  the  world  ?  that  it  governs  public 
affairs  ?  that  science  makes  progress  in  it  1  that  men  of 
great  genius  have  become  its  defenders  ?  Nothing  of  all  this. 
He  is  much  less  taken  up  with  the  world,  and  much  more 
with  the  view  of  God.  "I  have  learned,"  says  he,  "your 
love  in  the  Spirit."  A  Christian  author  has  compared  the 
joy  of  Paradise  to  the  rapture  of  a  mother's  heart,  when  she 
again  beholds  a  beloved  son  whom  she  thought  dead  ;  and  he 
adds  that  the  joy  which  soon  subsides  in  the  mother  never 
quits  the  heart  of  the  elect.  The  joy  of  St.  Paul  resembles 
that  of  Paradise,  for  this  joy  is  that  of  a  mother  again  finding 
the  son  whom  she  believed  to  be  dead. 

Such  was  the  love  of  St.  Paul  for  those  who  had  been 
born  to  God  by  his  word,  and  for  those  on  whose  account  he 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  63 

himself  tells  us  that  he  travailed  in  birth  till  Christ  should  be 
formed  in  them.  Not  so  much  the  father  as  the  mother  of 
his  disciples,  it  was  right,  doubtless,  that  he  should  have  all 
a  mother's  joys,  having  had  all  her  pains ;  and  though 
eighteen  centuries  have  elapsed  since  he  left  this  world,  we 
rejoice  with  him  when  we  see  him  forgetting  all  the  suffer, 
ings  of  his  long  martyrdom  in  joy  like  that  which  a  mother 
has  when  a  man  is  born  into  the  world.  O  how  well  entitled 
was  he  who  so  well  knew  love  in  the  Spirit,  to  speak  of  it! 

But  do  we,  speaking  after  him,  though  too  unworthily, 
speak  of  a  simple  accident,  of  an  effect  without  a  cause,  of  a 
tree  without  roots  ?  You  might  suppose  it,  brethren,  from 
our  silence  on  the  principle  of  this  love  in  the  Spirit  ;  you 
might  suppose  it,  if,  on  this  subject,  we  did  not  previously 
understand  each  other.  But  suppose  that  there  are  among 
this  audience  individuals  to  whom  the  Gospel  is  unknown, 
what  will  they  say  after  having  heard  us  discoursing  so  long 
on  love  in  the  Spirit  ?  They  will  not  say,  perhaps,  that  we 
have  spoken  of  a  chimera,  since  we  have  appealed  to  facts 
and  mentioned  names.  But  they  will  not  be  the  better  in- 
formed, or  the  less  astonished,  they  will  not  the  less  ask  how 
such  a  love  is  possible ;  and,  in  spite  of  all  our  reasonings, 
and  all  our  facts,  will  persist  in  regarding  both  it  and  them 
as  chimerical.  ^ 

St.  Paul  did  not  infuse  spiritual  affection  into  the  hearts 
of  his  disciples,  merely  by  describing  the  beauty  and  proving 
the  necessity  of  it.  Before  sowing  the  grain,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  open  the  furrow,  and  he  had  opened  it.  He  had 
published  at  once  the  year  of  the  Lord's  jubilee,  and  the  day 
of  his  vengeance.  He  had  shown  righteousness  and  mercy 
kissing  each  other  in  the  ministry,  the  lessons,  and  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  Son  of  God  ;  he  had  made  mention  of  the  un- 
known God  ;  he  had  announced  the  Father;  he  had  made 
all  hearts  throb  with  joy  at  the  sight  of  a  reconciled  God  ; 


64  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

he  had  shown  the  God  of  heaven  under  an  aspect  at  once  so 
mild,  that  one  could  no  longer  fear  without  loving  him,  and 
so  holy  that  he  could  no  longer  be  loved  without  being 
feared ;  he  had  restored  to  the  soul  its  natural  impulse  to- 
wards heaven.  No  longer  seeing  happiness  on  one  side  and 
duty  on  another,  the  soul  was  no  longer  necessitated  to  defeat 
one  of  its  aims  while  pursuing  another,  but  could  throw  itself 
entirely  on  the  same  side  with  its  insatiable  desires  of  felicity, 
and  its  inexorable  longing  for  perfection.  It  found  every 
thing  on  this  same  altar,  on  which  it  had  been  told  that  it 
would  be  necessary  to  forsake  every  thing.  It  could  thence- 
forth give  itself  to  God,  give  itself  to  him  without  reserve, 
give  itself  to  him  from  the  heart.  It  became  the  end  of  its 
life,  the  centre  of  its  affections,  the  rule  of  its  feelings,  as 
well  as  of  its  conduct.  In  gradual  ^substitution  for  the  old,  a 
new  man  was  born,  created  in  the  image  of  God,  in  right- 
eousness and  true  holiness.  Eph.  iv.  *24.  As  that*  which  is 
born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  so  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit 
is  spirit.  John  iii.  6.  This  new  man  was  the  man  of  the 
Spirit.  He  loved,  acted,  and  lived  according  to  the  Spirit. 
He  did  not  feel  the  native  ties  which  had  united  him  to  his 
brethren  either  broken  or  loosened.  On  the  contrary,  he 
loved  them  more,  but  loved  them  better.  Charity,  which  is 
love  in  the  Spirit,  had  come  and  added  itself  to  each  of  his 
other  affections.  He  no  longer  chose  between  his  brethren 
and  his  Father,  for  the  more  he  loved  his  Father,  the  more 
he  loved  his  brethren  ;  the  two  affections  being  of  the  same 
nature,  and  flowing  from  the  same  source.  Out  of  him,  in 
himself,  he  again  found  the  unity  which  he  had  so  long  lost; 
and  he  saw,  with  indescribable  joy,  all  his  dearest  attach- 
ments stamped  by  the  hand  of  God  himself  with  the  seal  of 
immortality. 

Love  in  the  Spirit,  then,  is  not  an  unaccountable  accident, 
an  effect  without  a  cause ;  neither  is  it  an  efl^ect,  the  cause 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  65 

of  which  we  cannot  discern,  nor  an  effect  whose  cause  is 
not  in  our  power.  This  cause  does  not  resemble  a  prescrip- 
tion or  a  perfume,  which  evaporates,  and  is  soon  found,  by 
the  mere  lapse  of  time,  to  have  lost  its  virtue.  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever ;  and  the  Spirit 
of  God  has  not  grown  weary  of  creating  the  faith  and  the 
virtues  of  the  primitive  Christians.  He  who  carries  our 
cure  in  his  scars,  has  promised  to  be  with  us  even  to  the 
end  of  the  world.  Truth  cannot  cease  to  be  truth  ;  can 
man  have  ceased  to  be  man  ?  And  is  that  which  produced 
such  powerful  and  decisive  impressions  on  the  Colossians  to 
find  us  impervious  ? 

No  doubt  Paul  is  no  longer  there,  but  Christ  is  always 
there  ;  and  from  the  very  existence  of  the  church  of  the 
Colossians,  it  was  not  Paul  but  Christ  who  made  converts. 
Paul  did  miracles,  but  since  the  days  of  Paul  how  numerous 
the  miracles  which  the  Colossians  never  saw,  and  which  we 
know  !  How  many  encouragements  to  believe  and  love 
which  they  had  not,  but  we  have  !  Why,  then,  in  the  pre- 
sent day,  should  not  the  men  who  have  succeeded  Paul  have 
the  same  causes  of  joy  that  Paul  had  ?  And  yet,  brethren, 
if  any  one  of  your  pastors  were  to  mount  one  of  these  pulpits 
and  say  to  you,  as  Paul  did  to  the  Colossians,  "  I  give 
thanks  to  God"  for  "  your  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,"  and  "  the 
love  which  ye  have  to  all  the  saints ;"  I  have  heard  of 
"  your  love  in  the  Spirit :"  were  he  to  say  this  to  a  church 
as  a  whole,  including  all  its  members,  what  astonishment 
would  he  not  excite,  and  among  those  at  least  who  know 
what  is  meant  by  charity  and  love  in  the  Spirit !  And  how 
difficult  would  he  find  it  to  save  himself  from  the  charge  of 
gross  delusion  or  base  flattery  !  He  would  encounter  the 
same  charge  from  those  who  are  the  greatest  strangers  to  the 
spiritual  life,  however  little  their  attention  had  been  called, 
as  has  been  done  in  this  discourse,  to  the  characteristics  of 


66  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

love  in  the  Spirit.  No,  brethren  ;  a  church  or  society,  how 
small  soever  its  members  may  be,  to  which  its  guides  are 
entitled  to  say,  "You  love  in  the  Spirit;  true  love,  that 
which  sets  out  from  God  to  diffuse  itself  among  men,  that 
which  has  God  for  its  primary  object  and  supreme  rule,  that 
which  is  humble,  disinterested,  independent  of  sense,  supe- 
rior to  instinct,  in  a  word,  spiritual  ;  this  love  reigns  among 
you,  distinguishes  you  as  a  society,  characterizes  you  :"  a 
church  whom  one  might  thus  address  is  an  unheard-of  pro- 
digy. Almost  every  church  might  be  addressed  in  such  ^ 
terms  as  these  :  "  What  reigns  chiefly  among  you  is  the  will 
of  the  flesh,  instincts  good  or  bad,  conventional  arrangements, 
customs,  not  principles.  Now  charity  is  a  principle.  Cha- 
rity as  a  principle,  as  an  element  of  holiness,  charity  as  a 
virtue,  love  in  the  Spirit,  is  the  portion  of  a  very  small  num- 
ber, and  even  in  these  what  difficulty  does  it  find  in  sur- 
mounting the  will  of  the  flesh  !  You  are  civilized  ;  this  is 
most  clear,  and  the  religion  of  the  greatest  number  is  civili- 
zation. But  between  a  community  which  should  profess  no 
other  worship  than  sociability,  and  you  who  profess  Jesus 
Christ  come  in  the  flesh  to  rescue  the  world  from  condemna- 
tion, there  is  no  appreciable  difference.  Between  honest 
people  of  the  world,  and  Christians  such  as  you  are,  we  can- 
not say  in  which  Christianity  is  more  manifest.  What  they 
have  received  from  Christianity  in  spite  of  themselves,  you 
have  doubtless  likewise  received  ;  but  what  more  ?  And  by 
what,  unless  some  external  customs,  by  what,  unless  by  cer- 
tain forms,  can  we  distinguish  you  from  them  V 

O  strancre  difference  of  times,  and  difference  of  which 
there  is  no  justification  !  When  in  some  one  of  the  cities  of 
ancient  times,  at  Rome,  Ephesus,  Colosse,  some  men  and 
women  had  embraced  the  doctrine  of  the  cross,  it  was  like 
the  appearance  of  human  nature  in  a  new  form  ;  and  as  the 
existence  of  humble  flowers  varied  amoncr  the  turf  is  indi- 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  67 

cated  by  their  perfume,  so  an  indescribable  perfume  of  life 
and  eternity,  an  indescribable  spiritual  emanation  powerfully 
drew  all  eyes  towards  this  new  society,  which  otherwise 
made  no  noise,  and  which,  but  for  this  pure  and  subtle  per- 
fume, would  long  have  remained  unknown  !  By  what 
striking  features  was  it  recognized  internally  ?  By  what  did 
it  force  attention  ?  By  this,  among  other  things — it  loved 
according  to  the  Spirit.  O  strange  difference  of  places,  dif- 
ference of  which  there  is  no  justification !  When  in  our 
days  the  Gospel  is  carried  to  some  savage  horde,  if  they  re- 
ceive it  they  are  suddenly  transformed,  and  the  most  exqui- 
site delicacies  of  Christian  sentiment,  those  which  we  admire 
as  literary  beauties  in  the  works  of  Christian  genius,  are 
substituted,  so  to  speak,  every  succeeding  day  for  those  of 
yesterday.  Spirituality  keeps  pace  with  integrity  of  man- 
ners. There  are  Marthas  and  there  are  Marys  ;  and  from 
the  rock,  scarcely  cleft,  the  honey  of  Christian  delight  is 
seen  to  flow.  Among  the  less  advanced,  hatred  gives  place 
to  love  ;  love  in  the  Spirit  supplants  instinct  and  custom. 
Go  and  ask  for  such  wonders  in  our  churches,  though  rich 
in  liberty  and  all  other  resources,  alas !  must  we  say  it,  too 
many  resources,  too  much  liberty  !  These  churches  are  the 
world,  with  all  its  good  and  all  its  evil,  the  world  under  the 
name  of  the  Church,  the  world  with  temples,  rites,  and  sacred 
names.  No  longer  is  it  said,  as  formerly,  See  how  they 
worship,  see  how  they  pardon,  see  how  they  love  !  for  if 
there  was  ground  to  say  it,  there  would  be  nobody  to  say  it, 
all  being  within  the  precincts,  and  none  without.  Alas !  if 
some  particular  community  stands  out  from  this  vast  com- 
munity, and  exhibits  some  distinguishing  features,  what  are 
they,  and  what  shall  we  say  ?  Shall  we  say.  See  how  they 
love !  or  rather,  on  seeing  the  party-spirit  which  decks  itself 
with  the  name  of  brotherly  love,  shall  we  be  forced  to  say, 
See  how  they  flatter  one  another  ?      Assuredly  there  are 


68  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

spiritual  Christians,  but  where  are  spiritual  communities? 
Where  are  those  Colossians  to  whom  we  can  say,  if  not  to 
every  individual,  at  least  to  the  whole  as  a  body,  You  walk 
in  the  Spirit,  you  love  in  the  Spirit  ?  Let  others  answer  this 
question.  For  our  part  we  feel  forced  to  exclaim  with  the 
prophet,  "  Is  the  hand  of  the  Almighty  "  shortened"  "  that 
it  cannot  redeem,"  has  he  "  no  power  to  deliver  !"     Is.  1.  2. 

It  serves  little  purpose  to  arrest,  and,  so  to  speak,  im- 
prison our  eye  to  the  contemplation  of  our  wretchedness. 
Our  strength,  like  our  duty,  is  to  hope.  God  wills  us  to 
believe  that  all  is  possible,  that  even  in  our  antiquated  world 
we  may  have  the  glory  and  strength  of  ancient  times ;  God 
wills  that  with  all  due  regret  for  what  we  have  lost,  we  do 
not  forget  what  we  still  have.  It  is  no  more  suitable  to  our 
weakness,  than  accordant  with  his  pity,  to  break  the  bruised 
reed,  and  quench  the  smoking  flax.  Let  us  still  recognize 
and  gather  up  what  the  wreck  has  left.  Let  us  concentrate 
all  the  elements  of  life  which  are  scattered  in  the  midst  of  us. 
Let  us  unite  our  efforts,  our  prayers,  our  repentance  ;  let  us 
ask  no  longer  each  for  himself,  but  each  for  all,  our  squan- 
dered  patrimony.  Let  us  ask  life  for  the  community,  that 
life  which  we  want,  and  which  doubtless  comes  only  by  in- 
dividuals to  the  community;  but  which  is  reflected  from  the 
community  to  individuals.  Life  in  the  Spirit,  love  in  the 
Spirit,  the  Spirit  himself,  that  is  truth  in  truth  itself;  life  in 
life,  eternity  in  love,  the  Spirit,  that  is  Jesus  Christ  within 
us.  This  we  must  conquer  on  our  knees,  this  we  must  ur- 
gently beg,  this  energetically  will. 

The  Spirit  is  the  reality  of  our  Christianity  ;  the  reality 
of  pardon  and  salvation  is  the  soul  re-entering  the  body,  God 
returned  to  his  forsaken  temple.  So  long  as  we  find  in  our 
hearts,  (I  will  not  say  hatred,  although  I  might  say  it,  for 
hatred  and  love,  according  to  the  world,  readily  meet  at  the 
same  hearth,)  so  long  as  we  find  in  our  hearts  only  good  in- 


LOVE    IN    THE    SPIRIT.  69 

stincts,  good  habits,  yet  always  instincts  and  habits  so  long 
as  we  do  not  distinctly  recognize  the  Spirit  in  our  affections, 
we  may  well  say  that  with  gentle  manners,  an  easy  charac- 
ter, benevolent  inclinations,  a  delicate  sensibility,  a  natural 
generosity,  a  disposition  to  tenderness,  we  have  only  a  de- 
ceitful and  derisory  image  of  life,  we  have  not  life  ;  for 
eternal  life  alone  deserves  the  name  of  life,  and  none  of  those 
things  are  eternal.  Give  us,  then,  O  God,  spirit  and  life; 
permit  us  not  to  possess  the  Gospel  in  vain,  or  to  remain 
eternally  bent  over  the  brink  of  this  living  stream  without 
drinking;  do  not  reduce  us  to  a  vain  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
Give  us  love,  which  is  the  whole  truth,  the  sole  truth. 
Chief  of  our  faith,  be  its  finisher;  finish  thy  work,  finish  our 
salvation  !  Take  us,  keep  us  ever  warm  in  thy  paternal 
hearf ;  for  thou  art  our  Father  in  Jesus  Christ,  thy  well-be- 
loved.    Amen. 


THE  BELIEVER  COMPLETING  THE  SUFFERINGS 
OF  CHRIST. 


"  And  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh 
for  his  body's  sake,  which  is  the  Church."     Col.  i.  24. 

We  fear  not,  brethren,  to  present  the  Apostle's  thought  to 
you  under  its  most  accurate,  but,  at  the  same  time,  most  ex- 
traordinary form.  After  all,  the  preacher  of  the  Gospel  must 
give  offence,  and  it  would  therefore  be  very  strange  if  that 
which  forms  the  characteristic  of  Christianity  in  general,  I 
mean  the  unexpected  and  the  extraordinary,  should  not  be 
met  with  in  its  details.  It  must,  however,  be  confessed  that 
the  surprise  produced  by  our  text,  is  caused  by  something 
which  seems  less  to  be  derived  from  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity than  to  contradict  and  belie  them.  The  true  offence 
here  is  our  not  finding  the  primitive  offence,  is  our  not  feel- 
ing, in  all  its  bitterness,  the  unpalatable  doctrine  of  the  cross, 
is  our  seeing  man  resuming  in  the  work  of  his  salvation 
a  part  and  a  rank  of  which  the  cross  of  Christ  seemed  to 
have  divested  him  once  and  for  ever ;  it  is,  above  all,  our 
hearing  it  said  that  the  work  of  the  cross,  which  was  pre- 
sumed perfect,  is  however  not  so,  that  something  is  wanting 
to  it,  that  it  presents  blanks  which  it  belongs  to  us  to  supply. 


THE    BELIEVER    COMPLETING    CHRISTS's    SUFFERINGS.        71 

It  is  evident,  brethren,  that  this  offence  must  not  only  be 
taken  away,  but  that  this  passing  affront  to  Jesus  Christ 
must  be  extinguished  in  his  brighter  glory.  With  this  view 
our  intention  is  not  to  erase  or  enfeeble  the  words  of  St. 
Paul ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  to  extract  their  meaning,  and 
bring  the  Apostle's  idea  fully  out.  And  it  is  our  joy  to  feel 
that  the  more  we  press  them,  the  more  glory  will  redound  to 
the  Gospel. 

Certainly  if  you  consider  the  afflictions  of  Jesus  Christ, 
whether  in  the  dignity  of  him  who  endured  them,  or  in  them- 
selves, or  in  their  redeeming  power,  nothing  can  appear  to 
have  been  wanting  in  them  ;  and  you  will  conclude  that 
neither  men  nor  angels,  and,  we  venture  to  add,  not  even 
God  himself  can  add  to  them. 

Even  had  he  who  is  holiness  and  innocence  itself,  suffered 
only  a  single  one,  and  that  the  least  of  the  afflictions  to  which 
humanity  is  subject,  we  might  not  have  said  that  any  thing 
was  wanting  to  his  afflictions,  since  the  one  affliction  which 
he  would  have  endured  was  not  merited.  Had  he,  whose 
abode  from  eternity  was  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  been 
invested  with  human  nature  only  for  one  instant,  and,  if  that 
were  possible,  without  submitting  to  its  humiliation  and  suf- 
ferings, it  would  have  been  necessary  to  say  that  Jesus  Christ 
had  suffered  infinitely  more  than  was  just.  If,  then,  he 
accepts  our  body  of  sin  entire,  even  to  the  necessity  of  dying, 
if  he  chooses  among  all  deaths  that  of  the  cross,  what 
will  we  say,  what  terms  will  remain  to  express  what  is  inex- 
pressible, I  mean  holiness  attached  to  an  accursed  tree,  and 
God  himself  undergoing  the  punishment  of  the  worst  criminal 
among  men  ? 

Consider  the  sufferings  of  the  Son  of  man  in  themselves. 
He  did  not  suffer  all  that  a  son  of  man  may  suffer,  since 
hatred,  envy,  confusion,  remorse,  were  unknown  to  his  holy 
soul  j  but  he  suffered  what  no  son  of  man  can  suffer,  at  least 


72  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

in  the  same  degree,  since  the  sight  of  evil  could  not  produce 
the  same  impression  on  any  one  as  on  him  whose  eyes  were 
too  pure  too  look  upon  it,  since  no  one  has  experienced  or  can 
experience  such  revolting  injustice,  or  be  the  object  of  such 
odious  ingratitude.  How  then  would  you  add  any  thing  to 
the  sufferings  of  Jesus  ?  Make  him  endure  those  of  sin  ? 
That  cannot  be.  Augment,  in  idea,  his  own  peculiar  suf- 
ferings ?  No  more  can  this  be  done.  There  may  have  been 
bodily  torture  still  more  excruciating ;  but  besides  that  we 
could  never  be  sure  after  having  indefinitely  augmented  them, 
that  there  might  not  be  others  more  excruciating,  still  it  is  into 
the  soul  of  Jesus  Christ  that  we  must  look  for  the  true  passion 
of  this  God-man.  And  what  human  soul  could  ever  have 
suffered  what  he  suffered  ? 

However,  it  is  not  from  this  side  that  we  ought  to  approach 
the  question  ;  nor  even  is  this  the  question.  No  doubt  the 
capacity  of  suffering  was  in  Jesus  Christ  as  great  as  any 
other  capacity,  and  in  this  respect  also  all  fulness  dwelt  in 
him.  No  doubt  he  whose  substitution  was  to  outweigh  all 
our  offences,  suffered  with  an  intensity,  a  depth,  an  internal 
agony,  beyond  compare.  His  sufferings,  like  his  love,  are  an 
abyss  into  which  angels  themselves  vainly  try  to  look.  The 
question,  if  there  still  be  a  question,  is  whether  in  this  same 
sphere  of  suffering  any  thing  remains  to  be  done  after  Jesus 
Christ,  and  if  we  can  give  a  proper  and  literal  acceptation  to 
these  words  of  St.  Paul,  "  Fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of 
the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  his  body's  sake,  which 
is  the  Church." 

Let  those  who  have  the  courage  to  do  so,  dispute  as 
much  as  they  please  as  to  the  degree  in  which  Christ  has 
suffered,  and  as  to  the  absolute  possibility  of  suffering  more. 
Let  them  refuse  as  much  as  they  please  to  comprehend  how 
the  affliction  by  which  he  was  consecrated  the  Author  of  our 
salvation,  must  have  been  ineffable  as  his  love,  ineffable  as 


THE    BELIEVER    COMPLETING   CHRIST's    SUFFERINGS.  73 

his  works.  We  dispute  not  with  them.  Whether  or  not 
something  was  wanting  to  make  the  affliction  of  Jesus  Christ 
the  greatest  of  imaginable  afflictions,  is  not  the  point  which 
engages  our  attention.  What  we  say,  brethren,  and  we  say 
it  in  concurrence  with  the  whole  Gospel,  is,  that  nothing 
was  wanting  to  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  regard  to 
the  end  for  which  they  were  destined.  Not  that  the  mere 
death  of  Christ  accomplished  our  salvation.  The  author  of 
our  salvation  is  Jesus  Christ  as  a  whole,  and  therefore  St. 
Paul  in  one  of  the  verses  preceding  the  text,  after  having 
said  that  we  are  saved  by  the  Hood  of  the  cross,  justly  adds, 
hy  him.  It  is  not  by  the  mere  sufferings  endured  between 
Gethsemane  and  Calvary,  or  by  suffering  properly  so  called, 
that  Jesus  Christ  saves  us,  but  by  all  the  sufferings  of  his 
life,  which  constituted  throughout  one  entire  passion.  For 
he  was  delivered  for  our  offences,  as  soon  as  he  opened  his 
eyes  to  the  pale  light  of  our  sun,  and  long  before  he  was 
subjected  to  the  contradiction  of  sinners.  In  bearing  our 
body  of  sin,  he  bore  his  cross.  It  was  not  merely  by  the 
sufferings  of  his  life,  but  by  his  whole  life.  His  work  forms 
an  indivisible  whole.  He  could  not  save  us  without  suffering 
and  dying ;  but  he  did  not  accomplish  the  work  merely  by 
suffering  and  death.  He  accomplished  it  by  all  that  he  was, 
and  by  all  that  he  performed  ;  by  his  actions  and  by  his 
words ;  by  what  he  did,  and  what  he  suffered  ;  by  his  life, 
as  by  his  death.  But,  in  fine,  his  sufferings,  and  the  painful 
death  which  was  its  last  act  and  crown,  without  which -he 
could  not,  according  to  the  expression  of  a  prophet,  turn  the 
hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the  children,  and  of  the  children  to 
the  fathers,  and  the  question  which  the  passage  of  St.  Paul 
raises  is  this:  It  being  admitted  that  nothing  was  wanting  to 
the  example  and  instructions  of  Christ,  both  of  which  were 
necessary  for  the  work  of  our  salvation,  was  any  thing  want- 
ing to  his  sufferings?  and  docs  his  body,  which  is  the  Church, 


74  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

c  ill  for  a  complement  of  affliction  and  pain  on  the  part  of 
Jesus  Christ,  or  on  the  part  of  any  other  ? 

No,  brethren,  no.  All  that  sufferings  could  perform  for 
our  salvation,  those  of  Christ  pei'formed.  In  this  respect 
they  are  complete,  and  to  say  that  ours  are  necessary  in  the 
same  sense,  would  be  to  do  more  than  derogate  from  the 
work  of  Christ,  it  would  be  to  annihilate  it.  If  th&re  is 
upon  the  earth  any  other  name  by  which,  were  it  only  in 
part,  we  can  be  saved,  and  if  this  name  is  ours,  we  are  not 
absolutely  lost,  and  Jesus  Christ,  who  thenceforth  becomes 
our  associate,  or  if  you  will,  our  fellow-laborer,  is  no  longer 
our  Saviour.  Neither  the  depression  nor  the  elevation  can 
be  partial.  If  we  are  not  devoid  of  all  glory  before  God,  we 
have  still  all  our  glory  before  God.  If  we  have  any,  we 
have  all  merit.  If  we  are  not  absolutely  lost,  we  are  not  lost 
at  all ;  if  Jesus  Christ  is  to  us  any  thing  less  than  a  Saviour, 
he  is  nothing.  If  he  leaves  us  any  thing  to  suffer,  he  him- 
self had  no  cause  to  suffer  ;  for  to  say  that  our  sufferings  can 
do  any  thing  for  our  redemption,  is  to  say  that  they  can  do 
every  thing.  Man  is  quite  ready,  and  he  is  entitled,  to  draw 
all  these  inferences ;  and  you  may  depend  upon  this,  that 
when  you  have  admitted  him  to  a  share,  it  will  no  longer  be 
a  share  ;  give  him  a  part,  and  he  will  take  all ;  take  part 
from  Jesus  Christ,  and  man  will  leave  him  nothing.  But 
the  Gospel,  brethren,  does  not  understand  it  so.  The  Gos- 
pel on  this  subject  is  as  strict  as  absolute ;  as  exclusive  as  it 
is  possible  to  be.  What  importance  soever  it  attaches  to  our 
afflictions,  it  never  attaches  to  them  the  virtue  of  expiating 
our  faults,  and  saving  us.  Jesus  Christ  is,  by  his  sufferings, 
the  only,  the  perfect  Mediator.  What  he  came  to  seek  and 
to  save,  was  lost,  not  partially,  but  absolutely  lost.  It  is  by 
his  stripes,  and  not  by  our  own,  that  we  are  healed.  It 
alone,  and  apart  from  us,  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and 
for  those  of  the  whole  world.     Upon  him,  and  not  upon  us, 


THE    BELIEVER    COMPLETING    CHRIST's    SUFFERINGS.  75 

was  laid  the  chastisement  of  our  peace.  But  why  multiply 
quotations  ?  The  Gospel  is  wholly  composed  of  them,  and 
did  our  text  say  the  contrary,  it  would  stand  solitary  among 
a  thousand  which  we  might  quote  from  the  writings  of  St. 
Paul  alone. 

As  there  could  be  no  error  more  palpable,  so  there  could 
be  none  of  sadder  consequence  ;  and  there  is  doubtless  some- 
thing astonishing,  though  by  no  means  inexplicable,  in  the 
eagerness  with  which  so  many  persons  found  a  title  upon 
their  sufferings.  But  do  they  know,  can  they  know  how 
many  of  those  sufferings  will  be  necessary  to  complete  those 
of  Jesus  Christ  ?  But  can  they,  in  sober  earnest,  calculate 
upon  the  virtue  of  their  personal  afflictions,  and,  in  the  re- 
membrance of  their  misery,  discover  the  smallest  particle  of 
confidence  and  peace  ?  Gr,  if  they  are  able  to  do  this,  will 
it  not  be  shortly  after  to  discover  the  internal  trouble  of  which 
they  thought  to  disencumber  themselves,  since  how  little  in 
earnest  soever  they  may  be,  they  will  infallibly  experience 
a  gradual  decay  within  themselves,  both  of  absolute  confi- 
dence in  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ,  of  affection  for  him, 
and  of  the  principle  which  prompts  to  disinterested  obedience 
to  him.  I  say  their  affection  for  Jesus  Christ :  for  though 
he  suffered  neither  more  nor  less  on  the  one  supposition  than 
on  the  other,  he  is  not  their  benefactor  in  the  same  degree  ; 
he  is  not  their  Saviour  so  absolutely,  nay,  he  is  not  their 
Saviour  at  all.  I  add  the  principle  of  disinterested  obedience, 
because  this  principle  is  nothing  else  than  gratitude.  But 
gratitude  shared  between  Jesus  Christ  and  themselves  leads 
them  back,  step  by  step,  towards  the  freezing,  deadly  prin- 
ciple of  self-righteousness.  A  generous  life  must  have  a 
generous  principle  ;  and  whoso  believes  himself  to  be  half 
the  author  of  his  salvation  will  soon  believe  himself  the 
principal,  and  at  last  the  only  author.  This  downward  tend- 
ency is  irresistible.     Jesus  Christ  will  now  appear  only  in 


76  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

the  second  place,  and  his  sufTerings  will  be  only  a  fund  in 
reserve,  to  which  application  will  not  be  made  except  when 
better  cannot  be  done  to  fill  up  the  deficiencies  which  cannot 
but  be  seen,  and  those  which  possibly  may  not  have  been 
seen.  Do  we  not  thenceforward,  or  rather,  do  we  not  from 
the  very  first  step  in  this  progress,  feel  the  deadly  influence 
of  this  idea ;  which,  making  ourselves  the  cause  or  the 
means  of  our  salvation,  turns  aside  our  gratitude  from  its 
true  object,  and  precludes  the  ascent  of  that  disinterested 
love  which  is  the  only  life  of  the  soul  ? 

As  to  those  who,  annoyed,  so  to  speak,  with  what  is  mys- 
terious in  salvation  by  the  intervention  of  the  Son  of  God, 
might  have  flattered  themselves  that  they  could  make  this 
mystery  more  transparent,  and  the  yoke  of  faith  more  light, 
by  dividing  the  merit  of  redemption  between  the  sufferings 
of  Christ  and  those  of  men,  they  would  labor,  you  will  ad- 
mit, under  a  strange  delusion.  Will  the  knot  thereby  be 
more  easily  loosed,  will  the  mystery  be  less  impenetrable  ? 
And  what  matters  it,  under  this  point  of  view,  whether  the 
sufferings  of  Christ  be  all,  or  whether  they  only  bear  a  part 
in  the  excellent  work  to  which  in  all  cases  we  are  indeed 
willing  that  they  be  applied  ?  Is  not  this  part,  how  little  so- 
ever it  be,  inconceivable  ?  Will  men  ever  comprehend  how 
the  Holy  and  the  Just  either  behooved  or  could  have  been 
able  to  suffer  ?  And  is  it  not  necessary,  in  order  to  remove 
the  mystery,  to  remove  the  sufferings  of  Christ  from  every 
species  of  participation  ;  yes,  even  the  least  participation  in 
the  accomplishment  of  the  designs  of  the  Divine  mercy  ? 
There  is  nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  to  be  gained  by  this 
division  ;  and  if  it  is  only  a  question  of  mystery,  it  is  just  as 
well  to  keep  the  mystery  entire. 

How  then,  once  more,  can  any  thing  be  wanting  to  the 
sufferings  of  Christ  ?  Here  it  is,  brethren.  Christ  is  still 
here  below.     Christ  is  still  detained  in   mortal  flesh.     His 


THE    BELIEVER    COMPLETING    CHRIST  S    SUFFERINGS.  77 

glorious  resurrection  rescued  him  from  the  power  of  the 
grave ;  his  glorious  ascension  has  withdrawn  him  from 
earthly  eyes  ;  every  thing  is  accomplished,  for  what  he  has 
done  is  all-sufficient.  But  Christ  is  in  the  person  of  the 
Church,  his  own  successor.  The  Church  is  a  body  whose 
Head  is  in  heaven.  The  Church  militant  has  inherited  the 
condition  of  Christ,  humbled  and  suffering.  Here  below,  it 
represents  its  Divine  chief  as  Son  of  man,  and  will  repre- 
sent him  as  such  to  the  end  of  the  world.  It  is  doubtless  to 
Jesus  Christ  what  the  body  is  to  the  head,  which  communi- 
cates motion  to  it,  and  determines  all  its  acts ;  but  it  is  not 
less  closely  united  to  Christ  Jesus  than  the  head  is  to  the 
body.  It  does  nothing  by  itself,  but  does  by  him  whatever 
it  does  upon  the  earth.  It  continues  his  work,  but  by  him 
and  for  him.  It  is  the  whole  body,  but  it  is  not  the  head. 
And  while  Jesus  Christ,  the  head  or  chief,  reigns  in  the 
peace  and  glory  of  heaven,  the  body,  which  is  the  Church, 
remaining  upon  the  earth,  suffers  upon  the  earth  all  that 
Jesus  Christ  would  suffer  if  he  were  still  upon  the  earth ; 
for,  having  the  same  spirit,  invoking  his  name,  waging  the 
same  combat  with  error  and  sin,  it  must  have  the  same  ene- 
mies, encounter  the  same  obstacles,  arouse  the  same  hostility, 
endure  the  same  passion.  It  must  endure  all  that,  otherwise 
it  is  not  the  Church.  The  agony  of  Jesus  Christ  must  con- 
tinue in  the  person  of  the  Church,*  otherwise  there  is  no 
Church.  The  Head,  being  living,  the  body  must  live,  and 
living  upon  the  earth,  lead  an  earthly  life  ;  that  is,  suffer. 
This  it  is  that  is  ivanting  or  that  remains  to  be  suffered,  since 
Jesus  Christ  has  sufTered.  Here  is  a  sign  that  his  work  is 
being  done  upon   the  earth  ;  here  the   flaming  but  glorious 

*  Jesus  Christ  will  be  in  agony  until  the  end  of  the  world  ;  in  the 
meantime  there  must  be  no  sleep. —  Pascal's  Thoughts.  Edit,  of  Fau- 
gere,  II.  339. 


78  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

seal  which  the  Master  stamps  on  those  who  are  his  ;  here 
the  mean  which  the  Church  has  of  corresponding  with  its 
Head. 

This  is  the  proper  place  to  observe  that  the  term  which 
St.  Paul  employs  signifies  not  only  to  faiish  but  also  to  corres- 
pond. It  is  by  continuing  Jesus  Christ  to  render  to  him  what 
has  been  received  from  him.  Christ  is  the  victim  of  the 
Church,  and  the  Church  is  the  victim  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
Church,  moreover,  is  the  servant  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  she  did 
not  suffer,  she  would  not  act,  for  she  cannot  act  without  suf- 
fering ;  and  if  she  did  not  act,  she  would  not  correspond  to 
her  Chief,  she  would  not  serve  her  Master ;  who,  on  his  part, 
would  appear  to  disavow  her.  In  all  these  respects  there 
wants,  and  to  the  end  of  the  world  will  want,  there  will  be 
something  to  be  added  to  the  afflictions  of  Christ ;  not  doubt- 
less to  his  personal  afflictions,  which  are  in  every  sense  com- 
plete, but  to  those  which  he  has  resolved,  if  we  may  so  speak, 
to  endure  to  the  end  of  the  world  in  the  persons  of  believers. 

Do  not  attribute  to  the  body  any  thing  which  belongs  not 
to  the  head.  Do  not  impute  to  the  afflictions  of  the  body  the 
merit  and  redeeming  virtue  which  belongs  only  to  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  head ;  certainly  not :  but  allow  the  body,  which 
is  the  Church,  to  enter  into  a  fellowship  of  love  and  suffering 
with  the  head,  which  is  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  prove  to  you,  brethren,  that  all 
which  we  have  just  said  of  the  Church  necessarily  applies  to 
the  believer ;  in  other  words,  that  the  believer  is  called  to 
suffer  like  the  Church.  A  member  of  a  suffering  Church, 
how  should  he  not  suffer  ?  And  what  in  reality  are  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  Church  but  the  sufferings  of  her  members  ? 
Where  can  she  suffer  if  not  in  her  members  ?  And  how 
can  we  conceive  a  sorrow  of  the  Church  of  which  her  true 
members  should  not  be  partakers  ?  Let  us  not  stop  to  prove 
what  is  evident;  let  us  pass  on.     The  believer,  with  respect 


THE    BELIEVER    COMPLETING    CIIRISt's    SUFFERINGS.  79 

to  Jesus  Christ,  bears  in  himself  all  the  'characters  of  the 
Church.  He  is  a  complete  epitome  of  it,  so  that  if  by  a 
decree  of  God  mankind  were  suddenly  reduced  to  two  indi- 
viduals, the  one  a  believer,  the  other  an  unbeliever,  nothinr]:; 
would  be  changed  but  the  number,  and  these  two  individuals 
would  completely  represent,  in  regard  to  Jesus  Christ,  the 
world  and  the  Church.  For  if  the  Church,  in  [her  actual 
condition,  is  in  the  eye  of  Jesus  Christ  a  single  person  whom 
he  calls  his  spouse,  there  would  in  this  respect  be  no  change  ; 
there  would  still  be  a  person  in  whom  FJesus  Christ  would 
make  his  abode,  and  whom  he  would  continue  to  call  his 
spouse.  The  only  thing  which  should  have  disappeared 
would  be  association,  community ;  but  all  the  rest  would 
remain.  Does  that  which  should  then  be  manifested,  that 
which  should  then  be  evident,  exist  at  present,  though  wrapt  in 
obscurity  ?  At  present  the  believer  holds  the  same  relations 
with  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Church ;  at  present  the  believing 
soul,  as  well  as  the  whole  Church,  is  the  spouse  of  Jesus 
Christ.  And  all  which  was  imposed  on  the  Church  in  her 
quality  of  Church,  her  whole  destiny  and  vocation,  we  trans- 
fer to  each  Christian.  We  say  of  him,  as  of  the  Church, 
that  he  succeeds  to  Jesus  Christ  in  his  humiliation,  and 
represents  him  upon  the  earth.  We  say  of  him,  as  of  the 
Church,  with  the  exception  of  merit  and  intrinsic  power,  that 
he  has  the  same  work  to  do  as  Jesus  Christ.  We  say  of  him, 
as  of  the  Church,  that  he  has  the  same  enemies  to  combat  as 
his  Master,  and  the  same  obstacles  to  surmount.  We  say 
that  if  the  Church  of  which  Jesus  Christ  became  the  victim 
is  in  her  turn  the  victim  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  believer  is  not 
less  so.  For  once  more  this  contia-uation,  this  complement 
of  which  our  text  speaks,  is  not  a  simple  continuation,  a 
simple  complement,  but  a  correspondence ;  it  is  human 
nature  sacrificing  itself  for  Jesus  Christ,  as  Jesus  Christ 
sacrificed  himself  for  it ;  and  this  immolation,  this  perpetual 


80  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

sacrifice,  which  is  consummated  at  large  and  in  a  striking 
manner  in  the  body  of  the  Church,  is  accomplished  in  par- 
ticular and  obscurely  in  each  of  the  members  of  which  the 
great  body  is  composed. 

We  lately  made  a  supposition,  brethren,  which  appeared 
to  you  extreme  ;  we  supposed  mankind  reduced  to  two  indi- 
viduals, of  which  one  should  represent  the  Church,  and  the 
other  the  world  :  it  did  not  seem  in  fact  that  fewer  than  two 
individuals  could  suffice  to  represent  two  worlds.  We  did 
not  however  go  far  enough,  and  we  may  without  changing 
any  thing  essential,  reduce  the  two  individuals  to  one.  The 
Church  and  the  world  will  still  be  there,  and  the  occasion, 
the  subject  of  the  combat,  will  not  have  disappeared.  This 
man  left  alone  after  the  disappearance  of  the  human  race, 
this  man  whom  I  suppose  a  Christian  (for  if  he  were  not, 
there  would  be  no  room  for  the  continuation  of  the  sufferings 
of  Christ),  this  man  carries  a  world  in  his  flesh.  This  man 
who  exclaims  at  every  moment,  "  Who  shall  deliver  me 
from  the  body  of  this  death  !  When  will  that  which  is 
mortal  in  me  be  swallowed  up  of  life  !"  this  man  is  a  single 
man  only  in  appearance ;  it  is  only  in  appearance  that  he  is 
delivered  from  every  adversary  and  every  enemy.  He  has 
always  one  ;  he  has  him  under  his  feet,  I  admit ;  since  he  is 
a  Christian,  he  is  always  victorious ;  but  victory  the  most 
complete  and  least  contested,  supposes  an  adversary  and  a 
combat.  I  do  not  speak  to  you  of  that  invisible  enemy  who 
was  visible  to  Jesus  Christ  in  the  desert,  and  whose  inex- 
haustible hatred  is  most  bitter  against  the  most  faithful,  I 
attend  only  to  the  world. 

The  world  exists  entire  in  that  flesh  infested  by  the  first 
sin,  and  the  impulse  of  which  the  holiest  among  Christians  is 
obliged  not  to  ibllow,  but  repress.  Thus,  then,  in  the  same 
way  as  the  Church  in  the  world,  this  man  also  in  his  flesh 
continues,  and  on  his  part  completes  the  sufferings  of  Christ; 


THE    BELIEVER    COMPLETING    CHRIST's    SUFFERINGS.  81 

for  the  enemies  which  Jesus  Christ  found  only  around  him, 
this  man  finds  in  himself. 

We  are  astonished  at  being  called  to  complete  the  suffer- 
ings of  Jesus  Christ,  but  we  might  at  first  be  astonished  that 
those  whom  he  came  to  save  were  not  immediately  relieved 
from  all  suffering,  and  that  their  felicity  is  postponed.  For, 
in  fine,  whether  believers  suffer  to  complete  the  sufferings 
of  their  Saviour,  or  suffer  for  any  other  reason,  still  they 
suffer.  This  we  cannot  deny,  and  cannot  explain  without 
entering  fully  into  the  thought  of  St.  Paul.  Why  in  fact 
should  they  suffer,  if  nothing  M'ere  in  any  sense  wanting  to 
the  afflictions  of  their  Saviour  ?  Now  what  evangelical  wis- 
dom teaches  on  this  subject,  is  as  follows : 

Christ  did  not  come  to  dispense  by  his  sufferings  with 
our  sufferings,  nor  to  dispense  by  his  death  with  our  death. 
We  could  not,  we  ought  not  to  claim  this.  What  are  the 
light  afflictions  of  the  present  tiine,  if  they  are  besides 
necessary  for  us,  when  compai'ed  with  the  eternal  weight  of 
infinitely  surpassing  glory  ?  No,  Christ  came  not  to  deliver 
us  from  suffering  and  death,  but  to  teach  us  to  suffer  and  die. 
He  has  done  more  than  suppress  suffering  and  death  ;  he 
has  rendered  them  useful,  when  they  were  useless.  Why 
do  I  say  useful  ?  How  feeble  this  term  is  !  He  has  ren- 
dered them  so  precious  that  their  preservation  is,  as  regards 
the  believer,  one  of  the  mercies  of  God.  Whether  or  not 
Jesus  Christ  had  come  in  the  flesh,  one  thing  is  certain, 
namely,  that  without  being  divested  of  our  own  will,  without 
dying  to  ourselves,  we  could  not  revive  ;  being  such  as  sin 
had  made  us,  we  could  not  attain  to  joy  except  by  suffering, 
to  life  except  by  death.  He  who  doubts  of  this,  very  greatly 
mistakes  himself,  and  no  less  mistakes  the  laws  of  the  moral 
world.  Man  would  not  be  fallen,  would  not  be  Separated 
from  God,  would  not  be  incorporated  with  the  world  by  his 
second  nature,  if  he  could  without  disseveration  be  brought 
5* 


82  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

back  to  his  ancient  relations  with  God.  Suffering  and  death, 
introduced  into  the  world  as  the  symbol  and  consequence  of 
the  fall,  formed  two  extremes ;  and  they  were  destined  to 
contribute  in  the  hands  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  in  his  hands 
alone,  to  the  purification  of  fallen  man.  Jesus  Christ  conse- 
quently, was  careful  not  to  suppress  them.  He  seized  upon 
this  evil  to  convert  it  into  a  good.  Impotent  and  unfruitful 
without  him,  suffering  has  become  by  him  a  germ  of  life. 
And  in  fact,  brethren,  after  liaving  accepted  Jesus  Christ,  ima- 
gine all  suffering  suppressed  ;  suppose  that  with  Jesus  Christ 
death  itself  had  died  ;  introduce  the  believer  without  transition 
into  peace  and  security  ;  were  not  this  to  take  from  faith  all  its 
exercise,  all  means  of  establishing  and  developing  itself,  and 
were  it  not  to  wish  that  the  germ  should  never  become  a 
tree  ?  How  will  you  prove  it  not  to  be  as  necessary  after  as 
before  the  advent  of  Christ,  for  man  to  pass  through  suffering 
in  order  to  arrive  at  joy,  and  through  death  in  order  to  arrive 
at  life  ?  There  could  be  no  change  of  this  necessity,  a  ne- 
cessity as  inviolable  as  the  justice  which  nailed  the  Saviour 
to  the  cross  ;  no,  there  could  be  no  change  in  this  necessity. 
Jbsus  Christ  then  has  not  abolished  it,  but  he  has  given  a 
meaning  to  our  sufferings  and  our  mortality,  and  he  has  made 
them,  what  they  never  could  have  been  witliout  him,  a  bitter 
dew  which  develops  and  matures  in  our  souls  the  blessed 
germ  of  faith. 

Those  who  have  not  accepted  the  hope  of  the  Gospel  do 
not  suffer  less,  but  they  suffer  uselessly  and  servilely,  as  slaves 
and  not  as  children.  Those,  on  the  contrary,  who  hope  and 
trust  in  Jesus  Christ,  present  us  with  a  strange  and  wondrous 
spectacle — that  of  weak,  frail,  mortal  men,  for  whom  suffer- 
ing and  death  are  no  longer  a  necessity  endured  involuntari- 
ly, but  iif  some  sort  an  act  of  the  will,  because  by  consenting 
to  those  chastisements  they  transform  them  into  sacrifices. 
The  Christian  does  not  suffer  or  die  in  spite  of  himself.     He 


THE    BELIEVER    COMPLETING    CHRISt's    SUFFERINGS.  83 

wishes  beforehand  all  that  his  Master  wills,  and  thus  neces- 
sity is  in  his  case  changed  to  liberty.  He  knows  that  he  must 
be  despoiled ;  hence  he  desires  that  God  should  assist  him  in 
despoiling  himself.  ,  He  knows  that  he  must  die ;  hence  he  is 
beforehand  with  death  by  dying  daily  to  himself,  and  daily 
withdrawing  from  himself.  Member  of  Jesus  Christ,  humbled 
and  suffering,  he  knows  that  if  one  is  dead  then  all  are  dead; 
that  in  order  to  be  united  to  Jesus  Christ  living,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  be  united  to  Jesus  Christ  dying.  He  therefore  re- 
ceives humiliation  and  suffering  as  a  pledge  of  communion 
and  adoption,  and  he  has  never  a  livelier  feeling  of  this  com- 
munion and  adoption,  than  when  he  is  afflicted  and  humbled. 
He  understands,  nay  more,  he  sees  that  in  proportion  as  the 
strokes  of  adversity  fall  upon  him,  the  old  man  whom  he  ought 
to  put  to  death,  dies  in  him  more  and  more,  and  he  ends  by 
discerning  the  meaning  of  those  astonishing  words  of  an  Apos- 
tle, viz.,  that  he  "  who  has  suffered  in  the  flesh,  has  ceased 
from  sin."  Thus  affliction  and  death  are,  in  his  eyes,  only 
the  natural  consequence  and  necessary  complement  of  the 
afflictions  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Let  the  path  of  the  believer  be  sown  with  so  many  thorns, 
as  to  make  it  rougher  even  than  that  of  the  unbeliever,  there 
is.  no  room  to  be  astonished  at  this.  And  though  it  should 
please  God  to  smooth  bis  path,  it  will  always  be  necessary 
for  him  to  find  at  its  extremity  that  death  which,  by  the  con- 
fession of  candid  philosophers,  is  the  bitterest  of  our  afflictions, 
which,  so  to  speak,  casts  its  ominous  shadow  before,  and 
stretches  over  our  happiest  days.  "  How  beautiful  soever  all 
the  rest  of  the  play  may  be,"  said  a  Christian  sage,  "  the  last 
act  is  always  bloody."  Happy  still,  happy  he  whom  the  di- 
vine arrow  often  warns  of  the  presence  of  the  Master  !  And, 
on  the  other  hand,  how  rough  in  its  unruffled  appearance, 
how  fearful  in  its  pleasantness,  the  life  of  the  Christian  whom 
no  calamities  forewarn  !     The  effect  of  temporal  prosperity  is 


84  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

to  lull  and  blind.  How  difficult,  while  enjoying  external 
peace,  to  keep  awake  !  What  exertion  is  necessary  to  move 
forward  on  a  sea  whose  waters  have  been  rendered  heavy  as 
lead  by  a  fatal  calm !  And  if  we  sleep  not,  if  we  still  ad- 
vance, do  you  know  at  what  price  ?  Know  you  what  inter- 
nal combats  must  supply  the  place  of  those  external  combats 
which  God  denies  us  ?  Know  you  what  chastisements  will 
be  self-imposed  by  that  soul  which  God  seems  to  persist  in 
not  chastising  ?  Know  you  with  how  much  sweat  and  blood 
this  flowery  path  is  bathed,  as  you  pass  along  it  ?  For  suf- 
ferings are  necessary,  in  order  that  Christ  Jesus  may  profit 
us,  just  as  Christ  Jesus  is  necessary  in  order  that  we  may 
profit  by  suffering.  And  if  peace  arrives,  if  the  day  comes 
on  which  we  can  with  impunity  be  happy,  it  is  after  the  com- 
pletion of  the  trial  has  not  left  in  the  believer's  soul  as  much 
leaven  as  will  leaven  the  mass. 

Thus,  dear  brethren,  the  Church  suffers;  and  the  Chris- 
tian, wrapt  up  in  the  destiny  of  the  Church,  the  Christian, 
subjected  to  the  same  law,  suffers  with  the  Church,  and  as 
the  Church. 

But  St.  Paul,  you  will  perhaps  remark,  does  not  say,  I 
suffer  with  his  body,  which  is  the  Church  ;  he  says,  I  suffer 
for  his  body,  which  is  the  Church.  It  is  because  every  be- 
liever, and  especially  every  minister,  is  to  the  Church  what 
the  Church  herself  is  to  Jesus  Christ ;  it  is  because  he  cor- 
responds as  member  to  the  whole  body,  as  the  whole  body 
corresponds  to  the  head ;  not  that  he  himself  is  not  in  imme- 
diate relation  to  the  head,  not  that  the  believer  can  only 
receive  from  the  hands  of  the  Church  the  nourishment  which 
God  destines  for  him.  This  fundamental  error  of  a  commu- 
nion from  which  we  are  separated  because  of  this  very  error, 
we  repel  with  all  our  might  as  pernicious  in  itself,  and  the 
mother  of  all  other  errors.  But  it  nevertheless  remains  true, 
that  the  believer,  while  remaining  attached  to  the  head,  who 


85 

is  Jesus  Christ,  resorts  to  the  Church,  and  while  he  receives 
from  her  a  thousand  blessings,  serves  her  without  ceasing  to 
be  the  servant  of  Christ.  For,  properly  speaking,  he  serves 
him  in  serving  the  Church.  What  in  fact  is  meant  by 
serving  the  Church  ?  It  is  to  edify  her  in  every  sense  of  the 
term,  whether  in  doing  all  we  can  to  communicate  strength 
and  light,  or  in  bringing  new  members  to  her,  and  taking  part 
so  far  as  God  gives  strength  in  the  meetings  of  the  saints,  or  as 
our  Apostle  says  expressly,  aiding  the  edification  and  construc- 
tion of  the  body  of  Christ.  Now  in  regard  to  such  services, 
is  it  the  Church  that  receives  them,  or  is  it  Jesus  Christ  ? 
Both  the  Church  and  Jesus  Christ,  he  being  the  supreme 
and  ultimate  object.  For  the  final  result  is  devotedness  to  a 
Church  which  devotes  herself  to  Jesus  Christ.  The  object 
is  to  lead  souls  in  captivity  to  the  obedience  of  Christ,  and 
therefore  to  aid  the  Church,  is  to  aid  Jesus  Christ. 

And  here,  brethren,  we  have  to  guard  against  two  errors. 
The  one  is  that  any  single  believer  cannot,  except  in  very 
particular  cases,  serve  the  Church  directly  as  the  Church  ; 
the  other,  that  the  Church  is  served  really  only  when  she  is 
served  in  the  character  of  the  Church  ;  two  opinions  equally 
unfounded,  although  perhaps  not  equally  dangerous.  No- 
thing in  the  Gospel  authorizes  us  to  believe  that  any  Christian 
is  less  entitled  by  birthright  to  watch  over  the  interests  of 
the  Church,  as  such,  than  is  the  citizen  of  a  iree  country  to 
watch  over  the  interests  of  the  republic.  The  history  of  the 
finest  periods  of  the  Church  abounds  in  examples  which  con- 
tradict this  opinion,  and  confirm  the  principle  which  regards 
the  Church  as  a  nation  of  ministers  and  apostles.  Gifts  are 
different,  ablities  are  unequal,  but  every  Christian,  as  such, 
is  provided  with  a  certain  measure.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
should  be  greatly  mistaken  as  to  the  interests  of  the  Church, 
and  its  very  nature,  were  we  to  count  nothing  on  those  indi- 
rect services  which  are  at  once  within  the  reach  of  all,  and 


86  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

are  the  most  important.  What  are  those  indirect  services, 
dear  brethren  ?  Just  an  upright  conduct,  a  life  of  divine 
and  habitual  charity.  In  the  absence  of,  or  rather  more 
than  all  other  means,  it  is  necessary  to  calculate  upon  these. 
And  how  can  we  employ  them,  or,  to  say  all  in  one  word, 
how  can  we  be  Christians  without  accepting,  in  addition  to 
the  sufferings  common  to  all  mankind  sufferings  of  a  higher 
order,  the  pains  of  that  spiritual  birth  which  Christ  forms  in 
us  ?  These  pains,  endured  in  the  simple  excercise  of  Chris- 
tian virtue,  are  classed  with  those  which  benefit  the  Church. 
And  without  doubt  St.  Paul  also  had  these  sufferings  in  view, 
as  well  as  contradiction  and  resistance  from  without,  when 
he  said  of  himself  in  our  text,  I  '•  fill  up  that  which  is  behind 
of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  his  body's  sake, 
which  is  the  Church." 

Yes,  it  is  at  the  cost  of  these  sufferings,  general  and  in- 
dividual, involuntary  or  voluntary,  of  body  or  soul,  that  the 
Church  remains  united  to  her  Head  ;  that  the  Church  is  the 
body  of  Christ.  She  is  strengthened  by  all  these  sufferings; 
she  draws  honor  from  all  this  shame ;  she  lives  by  all  these 
deaths.  This  is  so  essential  to  her,  that  when  she  shall  have 
ceased  to  combat  and  to  suffer,  she  shall  have  ceased  to  live  ; 
unless,  indeed,  the  whole  of  mankind  shall  have  entered  her 
bosom,  and  the  world  have  become  the  Church.  But  so  long 
as  in  Christendom  itself  (I  leave  the  heathen  out  of  view,) 
true  believers  will  be  a  minority,  there  will  be  struggling 
and  suffering.  The  Church  has  not  struck  her  roots  into 
the  soil  of  this  world's  interests.  To  them,  it  is  true,  she  is 
most  useful.  She  serves  them  while  they  know  it  not; 
but  she  proceeds  from  the  Spirit,  not  from  the  flesh  ;  from 
heaven,  not  from  the  earth ;  from  God,  not  from  man.  She 
does  not  present  herself  ~as  the  ally  and  accomplice,  but  as 
the  enemy  of  human  passions  ;  and  the  first  design  which 
she  announces  is  not  to  clothe,  but  to  unclothe  us.     There 


87 


is  enmity  between  her  and  the  vices  of  the  world,  between 
her  and  the  virtues  of  the  world.  The  wise  who  are  not 
wise  with  her  wisdom,  hate  her  no  less  than  the  foolish  ;  they 
hate  her  as  if  she  were  foolish.  Ever  a  stranger  in  this 
world,  notwithstanding  her  appearance,  (for  it  is  not  to 
herself,  but  a  phantom,  that  the  homage  of  the  multitude  is 
paid,)  she  is  incessantly  obliged  to  fight  for  the  place  which 
she  occupies.  She  lives,  if  we  dare  say  so,  not  on  a  certain 
income,  but  on  the  booty  which  she  seizes  from  day  to  day. 
She  is  not  established  in  the  world,  but  encamped ;  her 
existence  is  always  a  question  ;  and  while  every  man  com- 
ing into  the  world  belongs  to  society,  no  man  belongs  before- 
hand to  the  Church.  She  has  no  citizens  but  those  whom 
she  snatches  from  the  world.  Scarcely  can  it  be  said  that 
she  lives.  Her  life  is  a  perpetual  resurrection.  She  is  in- 
cessantly coming  forth  from  the  tomb.  By  means  of  truth, 
and  consequent  congruity  with  the  nature  of  things  and  the 
nature  of  man,  she  has  compelled  modern  nations  to  adopt 
several  of  her  maxims,  giving  them  a  new  civilization,  and 
even  her  name.  The  nations  who  call  themselves  Christian 
really  form  a  single  nation  when  contrasted  with  those  who 
are  not  so  named ;  and  the  time,  perhaps,  is  not  distant 
when  in  a  certain  sense  the  whole  world  will  be  Christian  ; 
but  even  then  it  will  not  be  the  fundamental  principles  but 
the  secondary  ideas,  the  application  of  Christianity,  which 
the  world  will  have  adopted.  It  is  not  the  world  that  will 
give  a  firm  hold  to  the  roots  of  the  tree  whose  fruits  the 
world  is  very  well  pleased  to  gather.  These  roots  (I  mean 
the  truths  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the  faith  of  the 
Church.)  will  be  not  less  contrary  and  hateful  to  the  natural 
man  than  before ;  and  so  long  as  this  natural  man,  of  whom 
the  Christian  ever  feels  the  remains  within  himself,  shall 
form  a  majority  in  the  world,  it  is  clear  that  the  Church  will 
behoove  to  combat,  to  struggle  for  her  life,  and  consequently 
suffer  as  her  Captain  has  suffered. 


88  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

What  idea  do  they  form  of  the  condition  of  the  Church  ? 
What  understanding  have  they  of  its  principles  ?  How  do 
they  represent  the  relations  of  the  body  with  the  Head,  and 
the  members  with  the  body — they,  I  mean,  who  of  their  own 
sovereign  authority  banish  to  the  first  times  of  Christianity, 
as  a  kind  of  heroic  and  almost  fabulous  age,  every  thing  in 
Christianity  and  the  profession  of  it  which  is  of  a  tragical 
nature  ?  Would  they,  (since,  in  short,  there  is  no  other 
alternative,)  would  they  say  that  Christianity  commenced 
with  tragedy,  and  continues  with  comedy  ?  For,  alas  !  would 
not  Christianity  be  indeed  a  dull  comedy,  if,  from  unwilling- 
ness to  continue  Jesus  Christ  in  his  sufferings,  it  should  be 
unwilling  to  continue  him  in  his  virtues,  and  refuse  to  under- 
stand  how  in  the  present  day,  as  at  all  times,  to  be  a  Christian 
is  to  do  like  Simon  the  Cyrenian,  to  share  with  Jesus  Christ 
in  bearing  the  burden  of  the  cross  ?  Not  to  know  this  were 
to  know  less  of  Christianity  than  was  known  respecting 
human  life  by  those  sages  of  all  times  who  have  declared 
that  life  is  a  combat.  And,  in  fact,  it  is  only  to  the  man  who 
is  absolutely  sold  to  the  flesh  that  life  is  not  a  combat.  All 
life  which  seeks  its  principle  somewhere  else  than  in  material 
interests  must  be  a  combat.  And  what  is  Christianity  but 
life,  properly  so  called,  and  therefore  combat  in  the  highest 
sense  ;  combat,  with  all  its  importance  and  all  its  dangers, 
all  its  agonies,  all  its  inveteracy,  all  its  bloody  horror  ?  Let 
us  speak  frankly.  You  are  Christians  only  in  so  far  as  your 
Christianity  is  all  that  I  have  said  ;  only  in  so  far  as  you 
can  say  with  some  truth  like  St.  Paul,  though  in  different 
circumstances,  I  "  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  afliic- 
tions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  his  body's  sake,  which  is  the 
Church." 

It  is  with  this,  brethren,  that  I  conclude ;  for  my  object 
has  not  been  merely  to  explain  the  meaning  of  St.  Paul's 
words,  and  remove  the  offence  which  a  first  view  of  them 


THE   BELIEVER    COMPLETING    CHRISt's    SUFFERINGS.  89 

might  occasion.  If  you  have  understood  that  in  one  sense 
nothing  is  wanting  p  the  afflictions  of  Christ,  and  that  in 
another  sense  something  will  always  be  wanting  ;  that  there 
will  always  be  a  residue  to  suffer  until  the  end  of  the  ages 
which  are  reserved  to  the  Church  and  to  mankind  ;  if  you 
have  understood  that  the  Church  is  nothing  else  than  the 
Man  of  sorrows,  perpetuated  in  the  persons  of  those  who  are 
united  to  him,  you  must  distinctly  ask  yourselves  if,  like  St. 
Paul,  you  fill  up  in  your  flesh  for  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
the  residue  of  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ.  For  I  cannot 
suppose  you  so  little  acquainted  with  your  own  religion  as  to 
come  forward  and  say,  St.  Paul  was  an  apostle,  and  I  am 
not  so  ;  St.  Paul,  was  set  apart,  and  I  have  been  left  in  the 
mass.  In  what  mass,  pray  ?  Has  not  that  mass  itself  been 
set  apart  ?  Is  not  that  mass  the  Church  ?  Is  not  the  Church 
a  society  of  apostles  ?  Are  there  some  in  her  bosom  who 
have  only  the  privilege  of  suffering  for  her?  Is  any  one 
excluded  ?  Is  it  not  the  duty  and  the  privilege  of  all  to 
fight  and  die  for  her,  were  it  only  in  that  hidden  and  ran- 
corous struggle  between  the  spirit  and  the  flesh,  the  regen- 
erated and  the  corrupt  will  ?  No,  no  ;  you  have  all  been  set- 
apart,  and  in  consequence  every  one  of  you  ought  to  ask 
himself.  What  have  I  voluntarily  suffered  for  Jesus  Christ, 
and  for  his  body,  which  is  the  Church  ?  What  battles  have 
I  fought  for  the  Head  and  for  the  body  ?  With  what  bloody 
remains  of  that  old  man  whom  I  must  put  to  death  have  I 
impurpled  my  path  through  life  ? 

If  this  view  of  Christianity  appears  at  the  first  glance 
melancholy  and  frightful,  have  you  not  within  you  the 
means  of  combating  this  natural  impression  ?  Ah  !  if  the 
objection  seems  to  you  unanswerable,  you  have  not  learned 
the  first  elements  of  the  religion  which  you  profess,  and  you 
do  not  possess  Jesus  Christ  in  any  manner.  If  you  loved 
Jesus  Christ,  the  objection,  supposing  it  ever  could  have  been 


90  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

raised,  would  fall  of  its  own  accord.  If  you  do  not  love  him, 
the  objection  subsists,  and  we  cannot  answer  it.  For  with 
this  love  you  will  perceive  that  these  sufferings  are  at  once  a 
necessity,  a  blessing,  a  glory  ;  and  without  love  you  will  per- 
ceive nothing  of  the  kind.  With  love  you  will  perceive  that 
blood  and  life  are  sacrificed  for  the  Church  in  the  same  way 
as  the  love  of  country  has  perhaps  made  you  understand  how 
all  things  are  joyously  abandoned  for  the  safety  of  the  Com- 
monwealth ;  but  without  love  you  cannot  understand  it. 
With  love  you  will  look  forward  and  see  all  these  afflictions 
transferred  into  joy,  because  in  proportion  as  the  outward 
man  decays,  the  inward  man  is  revived  in  proportion  also ;  as 
outward  happiness  diminishes,  internal  happiness  is  strength- 
ened and  increased  at  the  same  moment,  sending  down  its 
roots,  and  tiirowing  forth  its  branches.  Without  love  all  this 
seems  to  you  chimerical.  With  love  you  will  find  that  God 
still  leaves  you  a  remnant  of  happiness,  and  that  all  things 
rightly  considered,  godliness  has  the  promise  of  the  life  that 
now  is,  as  well  as  of  that  which  is  to  come.  Without  love 
the  largest  portion  of  the  goods  of  this  life  which  God  might 
give  you,  would  seem  small  and  niggardly.  The  whole  is 
to  love  :  if  you  love  you  will  comprehend  ;  if  you  love,  you 
will  say  with  St.  Paul,  "  I  rejoice  in  my  sufferings."  And 
have  you  not,  over  and  above  all  this,  the  ineffable  consola- 
tions which  love  imparts,  the  prospect  of  that  repose,  that 
heavenly  glory,  the  sure  promise  of  which  is  the  very  root 
of  your  love  ? 

The  Church  has  need  of  your  sufferings,  because  it  has 
need  of  your  services.  The  Church  is  not  more  than  sup- 
plied by  all  her  children,  and  by  all  their  love.  You  must 
see  with  what  painful  effort  she  is  struggling  against  ene- 
mies, both  from  without  and  from  within.  You  must  see 
with  what  bitter  tears  and  bloody  sweat,  she  bathes  her 
Gethsemane.     You  have  heard  the  sound  of  the  lash  that 


THE    BELIEVER    COMPLETING    CIIRIST's    SUFFERINGS.  91 

is  scourging  her,  and  the  derisive  cries  of  the  men  who,  after 
blindfolding  her,  (for  in  the  present  day  she  scarcely  knows 
her  friends  from  her  foes,)  insultingly  exclaim,  "  Prophesy 
who  struck  thee."  You  perhaps  hear  not  the  ancient  shout, 
•'  Away,  away  !  crucify  !"  In  certain  places  she  has  her 
crucitixion  in  the  contempt,  the  disdainful  tolerance  of  some, 
and  the  insulting  homage  of  others.  In  other  places,  far 
from  being  nailed  upon  a  cross,  she  is  upon  a  throne ;  but 
go  near,  examine  closely,  and  you  will  see  that  she  is 
chained.  Under  all  forms,  that  of  respect  included,  she  un- 
dergoes her  irrevocable  destiny.  Did  your  eyes  present  her 
to  you  tranquil,  honored,  consolidated  in  public  institutions, 
the  danger  would  only  be  the  greater,  and  your  zeal  the 
more  necessary ;  you  would  have  less  cause  to  fear  for  her 
if  she  was  crying  aloud  for  help.  Say  not  then  within  your- 
selves, Let  us  employ  this  momentary  time  in  taking  a  little 
repose.  There  is  no  time  for  repose,  and  there  never  will 
be ;  you  will  repose  in  heaven.  Alternately,  or  rather  at 
the  same  moment,  the  Church  attacks  and  defends.  The 
Church  advances  to  her  frontiers  to  protect,  and  then  goes 
forward  to  conquer.  Go  with  her  wherever  she  goes.  For- 
tify her  on  the  ground  which  she  occupies,  add  new  pro- 
vinces to  her  empire ;  unite  with  her  in  fulfilling  the  com- 
mand which  she  received  from  Jesus  Christ,  to  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature.  Architects  of  the  divine  mansion, 
builders  of  another  Jerusalem  !  take  the  trowel  in  one  hand 
and  the  sword  in  the  other  ;  destroy  error,  propagate  truth  ; 
above  all,  diffuse  the  perfume,  the  life-giving  odor  of  the 
Gospel,  by  a  pure,  holy  life ;  a  life  honorable  in  the  sight  of 
God  and  man,  full  of  charity  and  good  works,  to  the  glory  of 
Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  TRADITION. 


"  Beware  lest  any  man  spoil  you  through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit, 
after  the  tradition  of  men,  after  the  rudiments  of  the  world,  and  not 
after  Christ." — Col.  ii.  8. 


St.  Paul,  in  the  verses  preceding  our  text,  has  celebrated 
the  mystery  of  the  threefold  fulness  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
namely,  fulness  as  God,  fulness  as  Saviour,  and  fulness  of 
communion  through  faith  with  the  soul  of  the  Christian  ;  and 
he  concludes  with  saying  that  in  this  mystery  of  the  fulness 
of  Jesus  Christ  are  contained  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and 
knowledge. 

St.  Paul,  in  these  last  words,  throws  down  the  gauntlet  to 
human  wisdom,  which  insists  on  owing  alJ  to  itself,  and 
nothing,  or  the  least  possible,  to  the  great  mystery  of  the 
Gospel.  He  bids  defiance  to  the  heresy  which  had  for  some 
time  been  endeavoring  to  undermine  the  doctrine  of  Paul,  as 
delivered  by  Epaphras  to  the  Church  at  Colosse.  Or  rather 
(as  these  terms,  gauntlet  and  defiance,  are  too  little  accordant 
with  St.  Paul's  humility),  he  protests,  in  the  name  of  truth, 
against  all  those  who,  at  Colosse,  or  elsewhere,  presumed  to 


PHILOSOPHY    AND    TRADITION.  93 

know  of  something  superior  to  the  mystery  of  Christ  and  the 
fulness  of  Christ. 

Here,  brethren,  the  ruling  passion  of  St.  Paul  is  re- 
vealed ;  here  we  perceive  that  his  mind  is  occupied  not  with 
the  interest  of  an  idea,  but  a  more  affecting  interest,  that  of 
souls.  Here  the  joy  of  having  seen  this  great  mystery  an- 
nounced to  the  world,  of  being  himself  the  bearer  of  it  among 
all  nations,  gives  place  for  a  moment  to  a  lively  and  tender 
solicitude.  One  would  say  that  joy  has  awakened  fear,  and 
that  the  more  St.  Paul  appreciates  the  glory,  beauty,  and 
value  of  this  mystery,  the  more  he  becomes  alive  to  the  pang 
he  should  feel  in  seeing  the  believers  of  Colosse  deprived 
of  it,  and  regrets  that  he  does  not  possess  all  imaginable 
means  of  confirming  them  in  the  faith  which  they  had  em- 
braced. 

One  very  important  mean  is  wanting  to  him,  that  of  being 
in  the  midst  of  them,  so  as  to  speak,  instead  of  being  obliged 
to  write  to  them.  How  feeble  is  a  letter,  however  eloquent, 
in  comparison  with  actual  converse,  which,  being  prolonged 
or  renewed,  gives  to  mere  thought  the  inexplicable  force  de- 
rived from  the  living  voice,  the  look,  the  personal  presence, 
enabling  the  listener  to  question  the  speaker,  and  by  questions 
guide  his  address,  so  as  more  effectually  to  meet  the  wants  of 
the  occasion.  And  even  though  the  writer  should  be  weighty 
and  eloquent  only  when  he  writes,  though  his  speech,  to  use 
St.  Paul's  words,  should  be  contemptible,  has  he  not  the  means 
of  giving  power  to  this  contemptible,  and  eloquence  to  this 
mute  presence  ?  Has  not  action  a  language  ?  Are  there  no 
arguments  in  example  ?  St.  Paul,  it  would  seem,  did  not 
plume  himself  on  being  a  great  orator;  and  when,  with 
touching  humility,  he  repeats  the  remarks  of  his  opponents, 
who  said  of  him,  "  His  letters  are  weighty  and  powerful,  but 
his  bodily  presence  is  weak,  and  his  speech  contemptible,"  he 
does  not  childishly  undertake  the  defence  of  his  despised  elo- 


94  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

qiience,  perhaps  unjustly  despised  ;  he  simply  answers,  ''  Let 
such  an  one  think  this,  that  such  as  we  are  in  word  by  letters 
when  we  are  absent,  such  will  we  be  also  in  deed  when  we 
are  present."     2  Cor.  x.  10,  11. 

I  need  not  remind  you,  brethren,  of  the  deeds  of  St.  Paulj 
his  energy,  his  decision,  the  wisdom  of  his  measures,  his  abil- 
ity, if  one  is  permitted  so  to  speak,  in  the  government  of  the 
Church ;  in  fine,  his  zeal,  ardent  though  meek,  for  the  wel- 
fare of  his  disciples.  In  the  danger  with  which  he  saw  the 
faith  of  the  Colossians  threatened,  he  might  well  deplore  his 
captivity,  which  prevented  him  from  going  to  their  assistance. 
But  did  he  not  thereby  do  injustice  to  his  letters,  which  even 
his  enemies  allowed  to  be  powerful  and  weighty  ?  Are  they 
not  the  very  letters  Avhich,  transmitted  by  the  first  believers 
to  their  neighbors,  and  through  them  to  their  descendants  from 
age  to  age,  and  from  country  to  country,  have  converted  the 
world  ?  Are  not  we  ourselves  the  living  proof;  we  who,  af- 
ter so  many  generations  goiie  by,  still  assemble,  like  the  pri- 
mitive converts,  to  read  and  meditate  on  the  writings  of  Paul  ? 
And  yet,  brethren,  Paul  was  right,  and  the  immense  success 
of  his  epistles  proves  that  the  regret  which  he  here  expresses 
was  not  unfounded.  It  was  not  by  his  epistles  alone  that  the 
world  was  converted,  but  by  the  men  who  have,  in  a  sense, 
unceasingly  addressed  them  anew  to  the  whole  Church,  by 
the  men  who  have  spoken  what  St.  Paul  had  written,  and  by 
their  conduct  and  personal  example  confirmed  the  truths  con- 
tained in  these  immortal  writings.  We  may  say  literally  (at 
least  when  including  the  whole  body  of  believers)  that  "  faith 
Cometh  by  hearing,"  and  not  by  reading  merely ;  and  that 
if  in  some  way  which  it  may  not  be  easy  to  conceive,  the 
first  messengers  of  the  Gospel  had  confined  themselves  to  the 
circulation  of  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul  and  the  whole  Bible 
throughout  the  world,  without  mingling  their  spoken  with  this 
written  word  ;  and  if  those  whom  this  reading  had  converted 


PHILOSOPHY    AND    TRADITION.  95 

(for  we  admit  that  it  might  have  converted  many)  had  there- 
after in  like  manner  interdicted  themselves  from  preaching 
otherwise  than  hy  this  silent  communication  of  the  sacred 
volume,  the  flame  kindled  for  an  instant  would  soon  have 
grown  feeble,  and  ere  long  have  been  extinguished.  Such, 
generally,  is  the  importance  of  personal  presence  and  oral 
communication  ;  so  closely  has  God  connected  the  agency 
and  gifts  of  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth,  with  the  influence 
which  is  derived  from  direct  intercourse  between  man  and 
man. 

Not  being  able  to  transport  himself  to  the  Colossians  and 
appear  to  them  as  a  living  epistle  of  Jesus  Christ,  St.  Paul 
seeks  to  supply  the  want  by  the  earnestness  and  heartfelt 
warmth  of  what  he  writes.  He,  so  to  speak,  does  all  he  can 
to  make  himself  present  by  the  power  of  his  love ;  the  im- 
pulses of  his  heart  annihilate  space  ;  he  brings  the  Colossians 
near  to  him  by  the  very  expression  of  his  regret;  he  draws 
them  to  his  bosom  and  embraces  them  by  thoughts  full  of 
tenderness ;  he  is  determined  not  to  be  absent,  and  says  he 
is  with  them  in  spirit.  He  has  not  only  heard  of  the  impos- 
ing order,  the  battle  array,  (for  this  seems  to  be  the  idea,) 
which  the  Colossians  oppose  to  the  enemy  of  their  faith,  he 
sees  all  this,  and  rejoices  at  it.  He  is  at  their  head,  or  rather 
in  their  ranks ;  and,  if  they  here  engage  in  a  struggle  or 
combat,  he,  an  invisible  companion  in  arms,  toils  and  com- 
bats by  their  side. 

How  deep  must  be  the  vexation  of  a  patriot  warrior  not 
to  be  able  to  take  part  in  a  battle  which  is  to  decide  the  fate 
of  his  country!  While  the  Israelites  were  fighting,  Moses 
was  far  off  on  the  mountain  ;  but  there  he  fought  along  with 
them.  St.  Paul  knows  the  secret  of  being  present  every 
where.  It  is  not  his  fault  if  the  Colossians  do  not  perceive 
his  presence  in  the  midst  of  them.  He  is  there  in  effect,  he 
is  fully  there  by  love ;  and  not  from  a  distance,  but  close  at 


96  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

liand  lie  cries  to  them,  "  '  This  I  say  lest  any  man  should 
beguile  you  with  enticing  words.'  Col.  ii.  4.  I  hear  the 
words,  I  see  the  deceivers,  I  feel  the  danger.  Soldiers  of 
Jesus  Christ,  whose  goodly  order  and  compact  phalanx  I  ad- 
mire, Be  on  your  guard,  yonder  is  the  enemy  !" 

The  enemy  of  whom  St.  Paul  speaks  is  the  great  enemy, 
the  enemy  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  enemy  of  souls;  in  other 
words,  the  world  and  the  prince  of  this  world. 

The  aim,  the  constant  effort  of  that  enemy,  is  to  destroy 
Jesus  Christ  in  order  that  he  may  escape  being  destroyed ; 
for  not  only  is  there  no  fellowship,  there  is  no  compatibility 
between  Christ  and  Belial.  The  impious,  the  insensate  war 
which  the  spirit  of  the  world  has  declared  against  Christ  is 
a  war  of  death,  though  the  world  cares  not  fully  to  announce 
the  fact.  It  is  not  always  good  policy  to  take  up  the  position 
of  open  hostility  to  Jesus  Christ.  Although  his  true  friends 
have  not,  in  any  age  or  country  formed  the  majority,  there 
is  in  all  the  countries  of  Christendom  a  prejudice  in  favor  of 
Jesus  Christ;  or,  shall  I  call  it,  a  species  of  faith  which, 
though  it  is  not  true  faith,  and  does  not  imply  love,  fails  not 
to  produce  dismay  at  the  first  rumor  and  the  mere  idea  of 
waging  mortal  war  against  him.  There  is  a  general  con- 
fused feeling  that  Jesus  Christ  is  required  ;  and  that  in  a 
world  without  him  there  would  (one  knows  not  how,  but  the 
thing  is  certain)  be  a  great  and  dreadful  blank.  Thought 
has  its  knights-errant  as  it  has  its  heroes,  and  never,  perhaps, 
were  they  more  numerous  than  in  the  present  day.  Have 
you  observed,  however,  that  they  dare  not  while  attacking 
Christianity  by  argument  to  separate  themselves  absolutely 
from  it,  and  that  the  war  which  they  wage  against  Jesus 
Christ  is  waged  in  his  own  name  ?  The  sneering  infidelity 
of  the  last  century  is  no  longer  in  season.  Christianity,  it  is 
true,  is  merely  a  phantom,  a  vain  name ;  but  it  is  necessary 
to  keep  terms  with  this  name,  this  phantom.     Not  only  in 


PHILOSOPHY    AND    TRADITION.  97 

the  present  day,  but  at  all  times,  have  the  enemies  of  Jesus 
Ciirist  tbund  it  a  more  profitable  attempt  to  disparage  than  to 
annihilate  it.  The  former  seems  less  outrageous  than  the 
other,  and  this  is  a  great  point.  It  gives  no  "umbrage  at  all 
to  the  greater  number ;  and  provided  there  is  no  talk  of 
destroying  Jesus  Christ,  provided  there  is  no  absolute  denial 
of  him,  they  may  curtail,  and  exterminate,  and  reduce  him 
to  a  mere  name,  without  giving  any  offence  to  the  multitude 
to  whom  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  name  alone,  suf- 
fices. The  effect  meanwhile  will  be  not  only  to  disparage, 
but  to  destroy  him.  Jesus  Christ  cannot  be  either  degraded 
or  aggrandized.  To  lessen  is  to  annihilate  him  ;  and  if  he 
is  only  part  God  or  part  Saviour,  if  he  only  communicates 
himself  to  us  in  part,  or  his  communion  is  only  partly  certain, 
he  is  neither  God  nor  Saviour ;  in  short,  he  is  not  in  us  the 
hope  of  glory  in  any  degree  or  any  manner. 

It  is  true,  that  a  man  who  believes  more  in  Jesus  Christ 
than  he  is  aware,  may  detract  from  him  in  word  without 
detracting  in  his  heart ;  but  the  inflexible  law  which  declares 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  annihilated  when  he  is  lessened — the 
law  which,  though  it  seems  to  fail  in  particular  instances 
never  actually  does  so,  is  clearly  exemplified  in  the  multi- 
tude. Jesus  Christ  and  the  fulness  of  Jesus  Christ  are  one 
and  the  same  mystery,  one  and  the  same  truth ;  and  wher- 
ever Jesus  Christ  has  been  robbed  of  a  single  ray  of  his  glory, 
the  disappearance  of  this  single  ray  produces  a  complete 
obscurity,  from  the  bosom  of  which  you,  as  it  were,  hear 
humanity  exclaiming  in  accents  of  grief,  "  They  have  taken 
away  my  Lord,  and  I  know  not  where  they  have  laid  him!" 

What  joy  must  it  give  to  the  enemy  of  our  salvation  tQ 
have  discovered  a  method  of  making  war  on  Jesus  Christ 
without  exciting  suspicion,  and  even  while  appearing  to  do 
him  homage  !  It  is,  however,  very  easy  to  see  why  he  has 
at  all  times  preferred  heresy  which  disparages  Jesus  Christ, 
6 


98  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

to  infidelity  whicli  denies  him.  I  say,  brethren,  heresy  which 
disparages  Jesus  Christ,  because,  notwithstanding  the  in- 
finite diversity  of  forms  and  creeds,  all  heresies  have  this 
tendency  ;  all' without  exception  go  to  disparage  Jesus  Christ. 
What  else,  pray,  could  they  do  since  they  cannot  magnify 
him  ?  And  be  not  deceived.  The  heresies  spring  not  from 
without,  except  to  this  extent,  that  the  prince  of  error 
awakens  them  in  our  heart.  They  have  their  germ  there. 
The  human  heart  is  the  great  heresiarch  ;  and  just  as  it  has 
been  said  that  there  is  no  temptation  which  is  not  human, 
there  is  no  error  which  is  not  human.  An  angel  of  darkness 
comes,  and  with  his  hand  stirs  the  pool  ;  but  the  pool  was 
previously  in  our  heart.  We  are  thus  the  chief  accomplices 
of  our  enemy,  his  chief  auxiliaries,  unless  it  be  deemed  more 
correct  to  say  that  he  is  the  chief  accomplice,  the  chief 
auxiliary  of  a  heart  always  ready  for  rebellion.  For  the 
great  interest,  the  ruling  passion  of  the  human  heart  before 
the  truth  has  entirely  vanquished  it,  is  to  reduce  Jesus  Christ 
to  a  mere  name.  Doing  the  very  opposite  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist, who  felt  such  joy  in  saying,  "  He  must  increase,  but  I 
must  decrease ;"  our  heart,  even  after  confessing  Jesus 
Christ,  is  continually  whispering,  "  Let  it  be  our  utmost 
endeavor  that  he  may  decrease  and  we  increase." 

But  be  this  as  it  may ;  whether  the  initiative  belong  to 
our  heart,  or  to  the  great  adversary,  the  fact  of  being  ac- 
complices is  not  avowed  by  either.  Neither  our  heart  with 
its  passions,  nor  the  adversary  with  his  malice,  appears 
openly  in  the  arena.  They  do  not  measure  weapons  with 
the  great  mystery  of  godliness — the  Gospel.  They  send  in 
their  place  other  adversaries  seemingly  disinterested,  and 
free  (at  least  they  pretend  so,)  from  any  other  interest  than 
that  of  truth,  and  it  is  in  their  name  that  the  battle  is  waged. 
Of  such  enemies  are  two  with  candid  look,  unruffled  brow, 
and  venerable   mien,  and  bearing  on  their  shield  the  sacred 


PHILOSOPHY    AND    TFiADITION.  99 

names  of  truth  and  duty.  The  one  of  these  enemies,  St. 
Paul  calls  philosophy,  the  other  tradition.  "  Beware  lest  any 
man  spoil  you  through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit  after  the 
tradition  of  men  ;"  or  rather  by  a  philosophy  full  of  vain 
impostures,  and  by  human  tradition.  Such  are  the  auxiliaries 
of  the  world  in  this  impious  war ;  adversaries  which  in  a 
great  measure  owe  their  strength  to  our  passions,  and  without 
which  our  passions  would  not  be  very  strong.  For  on  the 
one  hand,  no  one  is  willing,  in  total  disregard  of  appearances, 
to  give  himself  up  to  evil ;  and  on  the  other  hand  it  would 
be  difficult  to  find  arguments  for  evil,  if  we  were  not  strongly 
predisposed  to  find  them.  Thus  alternately  we  aid  them, 
and  they  aid  us ;  we  receive  their  inspirations,  and  they  re- 
ceive ours ;  they  are  our  auxiliaries,  and  we  become  theirs ; 
and  their  efforts  united  to  ours,  are  directed  to  a  common 
end,  namely,  to  weaken  Jesus  Christ,  to  derogate  from  his 
fulness,  to  persuade  ourselves  that  the  mystery  of  this  fulness 
does  not,  as  St.  Paul  affirms,  contain  all  the  treasures  of  wis- 
dom and  knowledge,  in  other  words,  that  this  mystery  is  not 
perfectly  wise,  is  not  perfectly  true. 

Philosophy,  brethren,  taken  in  its  simplest  acceptation,  is 
only  a  higher  degree  of  good  sense,  which,  not  pretending  to 
know  all  things,  desires  to  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
those  objects,  the  knowledge  of  which  has  been  placed  within 
our  reach.  It  sets  no  value  on  names  and  appearances ; 
prejudice  is  not  the  basis  of  any  of  its  judgments;  neither 
number  nor  time  has  the  effect  of  transforming  error  into 
truth.  It  believes  not,  denies  not,  affirms  not,  at  hazard,  or 
on  slight  grounds.  Not  trusting  to  a  first  look,  it  searches 
for  differences  under  resemblances,  and  resemblances  under 
differences ;  alternately  uniting  what  the  vulgar  separate, 
and  separating  what  they  unite.  While  all  facts  are  isolated 
to  the  inattentive  eye,  they  are  connected  and  linked  together 
by  the  eye  of  philosophy,  which  does  what  it  can  to  trace 


100  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

the  chain  vvhicli  unites  them.  In  every  case  fixing  on  what 
is  essential,  and  throwing  aside  what  is  merely  accidental,  it 
comes  at  last  to  recognize  a  common  nature,  a  common  prin- 
ciple, a  common  origin,  in  ohjects  which  seemed  at  first  to 
have  nothing  in  common.  It  thus  reduces  the  innumerable 
facts  of  the  moral  and  physical  world  to  a  small  number  of 
ideas,  and  these  to  a  smaller  number  still,  always  gravitating 
towards  the  unity  which  it  will  never  reach,  but  to  which  a 
mysterious  power  constrains  it  always  to  aspire.  To  say  all 
in  one  word,  philosophy  differs  from  vulgar  reason,  in  apply- 
ing itself  to  penetrate  from  the  exterior  of  things  or  their 
envelope,  to  their  principle,  or  at  least  to  the  idea  which  ex- 
plains the  greatest  number  of  possible  facts,  and  before  which 
it  is  constrained  to  stop  as  if  out  of  breath.  When  shall  it 
stop  ?  What  is  it's  legitimate  sphere  ?  This  question  is  of 
more  importance  than  any  other.  Philosophy  does  not  gain 
more  honor  by  extending  its  search,  than  by  recognizing  its 
limits.  It  reigns  in  this  apparent  dethronement.  It  is  its 
glory  to  know  how  to  restrict  itself,  just  as  in  the  domain  of 
morality  it  is  the  glory  of  the  will  to  stop  in  proper  time  and 
make  an  effort  upon  itself  But  in  order  to  know  what  it  is 
able  and  what  unable  to  do,  it  takes  account  of  its  processes 
and  instruments,  compares  its  means  with  its  end,  and  not 
being  able  to  place  all  its  greatness  in  knowledge  finds  part 
of  it  in  confessing  its  ignorance,  and  so  to  speak,  in  knowing 
certainly  that  it  does  not  know. 

St.  Paul  did  not  repudiate  this  philosophy,  and  could 
have  no  intention  to  repudiate  it.  He  knew  as  well  as  we, 
that  in  matters  of  religion,  and  even  of  revealed  religion, 
there  may  be  either  a  good  or  a  bad  philosophy,  but  that  at 
all  events  there  is  philosophy.  We  cannot  condemn  philo- 
sophy without  condemning  ourselves  to  silence  on  the  sub- 
ject of  religion  which  presupposes  it,  and  guides  it,  and 
would  create  it  if  it  did  not  previously  exist.     Accordingly, 


PHILOSOPHY    AND   TRADITION.  101 

St.  Paul  has  not  condemned  it  ;  and  wlien  he  warns  his  dis- 
ciples against  a  science  "  falsely  so  called,"  his  words  imply 
the  existence  of  a  science  that  is  true.  Now  philosophy  is 
a  part  of  science,  or  rather  is  itself  the  science  of  science. 
Nor,  moreover,  could  he  have  condemned  it,  without  con- 
demning himself  who  has  made  such  happy  and  frequent 
use  of  it.  It  were  vain  to  deny  that  the  writings  of  St.  Paul 
and  of  St.  John  are  full  of  the  highest  philosophy.  Let  us 
be  understood.  We  do  not  say  full  of  sublime  truth,  but  of 
that  philosophy  which  we  have  endeavored  to  characterize, 
which  rises  from  appearances  to  reality,  from  accident  to 
essence,  from  the  particular  to  the  general,  from  variable 
facts  to  immutable  principles. 

No  more  did  St.  Paul  despise  tradition,  by  which  must 
be  understood  the  communication  of  a  fact  or  a  truth  by  a 
person  entitled  to  credit.  Philosophy  teaches  us  on  what 
ground  a  person  is  entitled  to  be  believed,  but  the  conditions 
which  she  prescribes  being  fulfilled,  it  is  philosophical  to 
believe.  Then  tradition  comes  at  the  bidding  of  philosophy 
to  fill  up  the  void  left  by  philosophy,  which,  however  she  may 
reason  upon  facts,  cannot  invent  them.  Revelation  in  this 
sense  is  tradition  in  its  highest  form,  the  tradition  of  God 
himself.  But  the  succession  of  holy  lives  in  the  history  of 
human  nature,  is  also  the  tradition  of  God,  or  divine  tradi- 
tion. These  lives  are  Christianity  itself.  For  Christianity, 
though  it  flows  from  doctrine  and  be  written  in  a  book,  is  not 
essentially  either  a  doctrine  or  a  book,  but  a  life  springing 
up  eternally  from  the  very  bosom  of  God.  In  this  life,  per- 
petuated from  believer  to  believer,  is  a  revelation,  a  tradi- 
tion, a  divine  testimony.  The  perfect  sameness  of  Christi- 
anity, continued  through  all  the  extreme  diversities  of  time 
and  places,  is  also  a  divine  tradition  ;  and  the  philosopher 
himself,  struck  with  this  marvellous  agreement  of  ages, 
nations,  and  races,  cannot   avoid  seeing  in  this  intimate  and 


102  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

involuntary  agreement  between  the  savage  and  civilized  man, 
between  the  Christians  of  the  first  century  and  those  of  the 
nineteenth,  a  fact  which  ought  to  have  great  weight  in  favor 
of  the  Christian  religion.  In  another  sense  still,  tradition  is 
of  importance  ;  namely,  when  going  back  to  the  very  sources 
of  our  belief,  it  shows  them  to  us  in  a  state  of  purity  and 
simplicity,  which  they  quickly  lost  in  the  discourses  and 
writings  of  succeeding  ages.  For  although  the  diamond  of 
truth  is  always  pure  in  itself,  and  although  the  moment  the 
outer  covering  is  removed  it  sparkles  as  at  first,  still  this 
covering,  this  crust,  must  be  taken  away  ;  so  that  it  may  be, 
as  in  the  hands  of  the  Master  and  his  immediate  disciples, 
with  nothing  to  envelope,  nothing  to  tarnish  it,  but  pure  dia- 
mond throughout.  It  is  to  this  return  towards  our  original 
sources  that  the  words  of  the  prophet  apply  :  "  Stand  ye  in 
the  ways,  and  see,  and  ask  for  the  old  paths,  where  is  the 
good  way,  and  walk  therein."     Jer.  vi.  16. 

It  is  neither  against  this  tradition  nor  this  philosophy  that 
St.  Paul  wishes  to  guard  the  Colossians.  He  speaks  of  a 
vain  philosophy,  and  a  human  tradition.  The  former  is 
natural  reason  proceeding  without  rule,  and  working  on  in- 
complete or  false  data  ;  the  latter  is  stupid  prejudice,  which, 
in  estimating  any  opinion,  throws  in  the  dead  weights  of 
number  and  time.  St.  Paul  wishes  to  guard  the  Colossians, 
and  us  also,  against  sophistry  in  the  garb  of  philosophy,  and 
against  custom  claiming  the  authority  of  proof. 

He  calls  this  philosophy  vain,  or  full  of  imposture.  Thus, 
brethren,  we  think  the  original  ought  to  be  rendered,  and  it  is 
in  fact  by  imposture  or  appearances  that  this  philosophy  de- 
ceives us.  It  does  not  lay  down  any  thing  as  a  principle 
which  we  do  not  admit,  and  admit  willingly.  The  truth 
which  it  wishes  to  destroy,  it  opposes  by  truths,  but  partial 
truths,  which,  being  separated  from  those  which  were  de- 
signed to  complete  them,  become  thereby  grave  errors.     The 


PHILOSOPHY    AND    TRADITION.  103 

world  acts  in  regard  to  the  truth  as  it  does  in  regard  to  Jesus 
Christ.  It  does  not  deny  it  absolutely,  it  detracts  from  it. 
This  is  its  imposture.  It  is  by  this  that  it  dazzles  the  greater 
part  of  men,  especially  those  who  are  willing  to  be  dazzled. 
Accordingly,  it  requires  not  to  evoke  phantoms,  and  create, 
if  we  may  so  speak,  factitious  errors.  Truth  is  sufficient.  It 
breaks  it  down  into  fragments,  and  out  of  one  of  them  forms 
an  error,  an  error  all  the  more  dangerous  from  its  resemblance 
to  truth.  Its  falsehoods  are  fractional  parts  of  truth,  and 
would  be  far  less  dangerous,  or  absolutely  without  danger,  if 
they  were  mere  falsehoods. 

It  is  thus,  for  example,  that  it  appeals  to  common  sense, 
a  kind  of  mole  whose  eye  sees  well  what  it  does  see,  but  sees 
only  at  the  distance  of  a  yard  or  two,  and  then  sneeringly 
asks  on  what  part  of  the  horizon  are  situated  the  wonderful 
objects  which  others  have  pretended  to  see,  but  which  in  truth 
they  have  only  dreamed.  It  takes  care  not  to  let  out  that  this 
weak  eye,  if  provided  with  a  telescope,  would  see  all  that 
others  have  seen.  It  accustoms  it  to  judge  of  the  things  of 
heaven  by  the  analogies  of  the  earth,  teaching  it  to  consider 
nothing  real  that  it  does  not  touch,  and  nothing  true  that  it 
does  not  comprehend.  It  does  not  bid  it  deny  the  existence 
of  what  is  invisible  or  infinite,  of  pj'ovidence,  or  grace,  or  in- 
tercourse with  God  by  prayer  ;  but  it  whispers  away  all  these 
truths,  because  none  of  them  lie  within  the  reach  of  common 
sense,  which,  if  interrogated  as  to  each,  would  answer.  No ! 
Do  you  see  that  man  who  was  employed  to  kindle  a  blazing 
beacon  on  the  top  of  a  tower,  to  guide  the  unhappy  mariner 
amid  storm  and  darkness  to  the  haven,  and  instead  of  doing 
so,  is,  as  if  in  mockery,  substituting  the  little  lamp  which 
lately  glimmered  in  a  corner  of  his  narrow  dwelling  ?  Such 
is  the  philosophy  of  common  sense.  Must  not  a  man  have 
fallen  very  low,  must  not  his  soul  be  smothered  or  quite  dead, 
before  he  can  seriously  apply  the  narrow  principles  of  com- 


104  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

mon  sense  to  religious  questions  ?  Well !  a  whole  age  may 
come  to  this,  (we  have  seen  it,)  and  what  does  Jesus  Christ 
become  for  such  an  age  ?  We  have  seen  this  also.  Some 
deny  him  and  blaspheme ;  others,  more  timid,  or  less  consis- 
tent, or  more  skilful,  disparage  him,  detract  from  his  fulness. 
For  the  latter,  as  for  the  former,  Jesus  Christ  no  longer  exists, 
for  Jesus  Christ  is  not  in  accordance  with  this  common  sense. 

Another  delusion,  of  an  entirely  opposite  description,  se- 
parating us  from  common  sense,  (which,  though  we  ought 
not  to  rest  satisfied  with  it,  we  aught  never  to  abandon,)  car- 
ries us  away  into  boundless  regions  where  nothing  arrests  the 
eye,  where  nothing  can  be  compared  or  measured,  because 
there  is  nothing  in  this  space  but  space  itself — where  ideas  do- 
not  represent  things,  nor  words,  ideas — where  the  existence 
of  the  thinking  being  is  confounded  with  that  of  the  subject 
of  thought — where  the  last  point  to  support  or  fix  thought,  the 
certainty  of  our  own  existence,  the  right  of  saying  7,  has  be- 
gun by  losing  itself  in  a  substance  which  is  no  more  capable 
than  ourselves  of  saying  /.  To  persuade  the  mind  that  thus 
to  beat  about  in  vacuo  is  really  to  think,  that  to  connect  for- 
mulce  wiih  formuIcB  is  really  to  know,  is  not  so  difficult  as  one 
might  be  led  to  believe,  or  as  the  philosophy  of  common  sense 
would  have  it  to  be  believed.  And  when  sacrifice  has  been 
offered  to  this  idol,  which  is  larger  but  nrore  hollow  than  the 
other,  what  remains  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  His  name,  perhaps. 
For  those  systems  which  plume  themselves  on  being  vast 
enough  to  take  all  systen>s  into  their  embrace,  have  one  also 
for  Jesus  Christ. 

But  what  is  this  place  ?  or  rather,  what  is  this  Jesus 
Christ  ?  Do  you  expect  to  meet  the  Jesus  Christ  of  Bethle- 
hem or  Calvary,  the  living,  personified  Jesus  Christ,  who  wept 
over  Lazarus,  looked  round  on  Peter,  and  loved  St.  John  ? 
How  poor  !  how  mean  your  conceptions !  The  cross  itself  is 
only  a  symbol,  of  whose  meaning  you  have  no  proper  idea ! 


PHILOSOPHY    AND    TRADITION.  105 

And  as  for  the  eternal  Son  in  uniting  his  divinity  to  our  hu- 
manity— and  as  for  our  Advocate  who  stands  beside  the  Fa- 
ther, and  lives  continually  interceding  for  us — and  as  for  that 
heavenly  Friend  who  is  in  the  midst  of  us  when  we  meet  in 
his  name — we  must  no  longer  think  of  them.  Jesus  Christ 
is  not  a  person,  but  a  fact.  The  person  who  appeared  under 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  did  no  more  than  give  a  visible 
shape  at  that  particular  moment  to  an  idea  previously  exist- 
ing in  the  world.  It  was  this  idea  that  was  crucified,  rose 
again,  and  ascended  to  heaven.  There  is  no  other  Jesus 
Christ.  Yours,  he  at  whose  feet  you  have  prayed  so  much, 
suffered  so  much,  loved  so  much,  was  several  persons,  none 
of  whom  was  Christ,  or  thought  he  was;  but  one  of  whom 
has  appropriated  to  himself  all  that  the  others  have  been,  and 
merged  their  memory  in  his  own.  Go  now,  pray  and  weep 
on  this  deserted  Calvary  ;  seek  there  for  a  cross  which  was 
never  erected ;  seek  in  the  heavens  for  a  Christ  who  is  not 
there,  and  instead  of  a  God  adore  a  system.  Your  Christ 
has  been  lost  in  a  much  greater  Christ.  Go  not  then  to  say 
that  he  has  been  lessened  to  you ;  on  the  contrary,  he  has 
been  aggrandized.  No,  brethren ;  say  boldly  that  he  has 
been  lessened  to  you,  lessened  to  the  extent  of  all  his  person- 
ality, which  was  the  support  of  your  hope,  the  principle  of 
your  religious  life,  and  the  charm  of  your  pains! 

The  philosophy  of  which  St.  Paul  speaks,  has  other  de- 
lusions in  store.  Always  faithful  to  its  principle,  it  lessens 
man  in  order  to  lessen  Jesus  Christ.  It  designedly  forgets 
some  one  or  other  of  the  principal  elements  of  human  nature, 
and  so  eflectually,  that  man  being  no  longer  the  entire  being 
he  was,  no  longer  needs  an  entire  Jesus  Christ.  Sometimes 
it  makes  religion  an  argument,  a  system,  all  the  parts  of 
which  it  skilfully  balances ;  and  so  completely  does  it  ab- 
sorb all  the  parts  of  our  intellect  in  the  study  of  it,  that  what 
it  gave  to  us  for  a  system  remains  in  effect  nothing  but  a 
6* 


106  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

system,  so  that  we  think  our  religion  without  feeling  it, 
reason  of  love  without  loving,  and  of  salvation  without  being 
saved ;  in  one  word,  know,  to  a  wondrous  nicety,  how  all 
these  things  ought  to  take  place  in  us,  while  none  actually 
does  take  place.  Sometimes  at  a  single  stroke  it  lops  off  one 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  and  one  of  the  wants  of  our 
nature ;  for  there  is  not  a  doctrine  in  the  Gospel  but  corres- 
ponds to  one  of  our  wants,  nor  in  our  nature  a  want  which 
does  not  correspond  to  a  doctrine  of  the  Gospel.  It  will  be 
satisfied,  for  example,  1  do  not  say  with  our  denying,  but 
with  our  dissembling,  our  being  silent  both  as  to  this  want 
of  our  nature  and  those  words  of  the  Gospel  which  unite  in 
exhibiting  perfection  both  as  the  limit  of  our  exertions  and 
the  end  of  our  lives.  Hence,  I  mean  from  a  mc^rality 
without  heroism,  to  a  trivial  morality,  there  is  not  even 
a  single  step ;  we  pass  without  transition  from  the  one  to  the 
other.  We  are  trivial  when  we  are  not  sublime.  And  if 
viewed  from  the  cross  of  the  God- man  a  vulgar  morality 
is  absurd,  the  cross  of  the  God-man  is  equally  absurd  when 
viewed  from  a  vulgar  morality.  What  have  we  to  do  with 
Jesus  Christ,  and  how  superfluous  must  his  cross  be,  the 
moment  it  is  understood  that  we  are  not  called  to  perfection  ? 
Jesus  Christ  is  then  degraded.  How  far?  I  know  not; 
but  what  you  ought  to  know  is,  that  if  Jesus  Christ  is  no 
longer  necessary,  he  is  no  longer  even  useful  to  you. 

There  is  another  deception,  another  truth  transformed 
into  error.  Philosophy  invokes  the  idea  of  progress  ;  and  as 
this  idea  is  profoundly  true,  as  progress,  in  whatever  way 
we  understand  it,  is  the  instinct  of  every  man,  it  readily 
finds  an  echo  in  our  heart.  To  give  the  whole  truth,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  tell  man  that  immutability  like  pro- 
gress is  the  characteristic  and  the  beauty  of  true  religion, 
the  work  of  a  God  in  whom  there  is  no  variableness  nor 
shadow  of  turning,  and  that  St.  Paul  has  said  of  his   Master 


PHILOSOPHY    AND    TRADITION.  107 

with  perfect  truth,  that  he  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
for  ever :  it  would  be  necessary  to  tell  him  that  this  immu- 
tability which  forms  the  glory  of  the  Gospel,  (since,  while 
remaining  the  same,  it  has  sufficed  for  all  ages,  and  supplied 
all  the  wants  to  which  progress  has  given  birth,)  is  at  the 
same  time,  and  above  all,  the  consolation  and  joy  of  the  be- 
liever  who  no  longer  fears  that  he  will  be  carried  about  with 
every  wind  of  doctrine  :  it  would  be  necessary  to  tell  him 
that  without  this  immutability  the  Gospel,  which  would  be 
to  him  only  a  human  idea,  continually  modifying  itself, 
would  not  be  sufficient  for  him  either  in  life  or  in  death :  in 
fine,  it  would  be  necessary  to  tell  him  that  the  progress 
which  he  loves  and  desires  is  found  in  the  Gospel,  which, 
without  admitting  any  change  on  its  eternal  foundation, 
adapts  itself  to  all  the  most  diversified  movements  of  human 
nature,  dilates  with  it,  so  to  speak,  and,  after  each  revolution 
of  society,  shows  itself  adapted  to  the  state  which  produced 
the  revolution ;  what  do  I  say  ?  carries  in  its  bosom  the 
germ  of  all  happy  revolutions,  and  has  instigated  or  paved  the 
way  for  all.  Yes,  it  would  be  necessary  to  tell  all  this.  But, 
by  not  telling  it,  we  produce  in  man  a  feeling  of  impatience 
against  this  immovable  religion  which  seems  to  keep  lagging 
b^hipH  his  thoughts  and  his  hopes.  Thus  then  Christ  Jesus  is 
diminished  by  taking  from  him,  if  I  dare  so  speak,  a  part  of 
his  humanity,  since,  in  his  character  of  man,  he  should  sub- 
scribe and  give  his  concurrence  to  all  developments  and  to 
all  true  progress. 

Such  are  some  of  the  stratagems  of  a  false  philosophy. 
Here  many  others  might  be  mentioned !  Let  us  be  con- 
tented with  having  put  you  on  the  way  o£  detecting  them ; 
and  let  us  now  with  St.  Paul  attend  to  the  other  accomplice 
or  ally  oi:  the  world,  human  traditmi.  Must  not  the  world  be 
very  determined  to  succeed,  and  at  the  same  time  very  dubious 
of  success,  when   it  associates  in  one  same  design  two  such 


108  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

declared  enemies  to  each  other  as  philosophy  and  tradition  ? 
I  mean  delusive  philosophy,  and  human  tradition.  Philosophy 
styles  itself  the  independence,  the  sovereignty  of  the  human 
mind,  and  tradition  is  in  its  eyes  servitude  and  degradation ; 
but  they  are  aware,  it  would  seem,  that  their  united  force  is 
not  too  much  to  insure  success  to  the  mighty  task  of  rooting 
up  this  great  tree,  or  even  lopping  its  branches.  Hence 
they  easily  overcome  their  mutual  repugnance ;  philosophy 
willingly  leans  upon  tradition,  and  tradition  willingly  defers 
to  philosophy.  I  mean  that  philosophy  disdains  not  to  enter 
into  the  prejudices  of  the  multitude,  and  the  multitude  refuse 
not  to  borrow  some  arguments  from  philosophy.  At  Colosse 
heresy  had  this  double  character  :  it  was  a  compound  of  subtle 
reasonings  and  unauthorized  traditions  ;  and  the  fulness  of 
Jesus  Christ  was  charged  with  being  at  once  contrary  to  a 
pretended  nature  of  things,  and  to  the  opinions  of  the  doctors. 
The  effect  of  tradition  in  this  discussion  was  directed  not 
so  much  against  the  divine  nature  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  against 
the  all-sufficient  and  perfect  virtue  of  his  work  as  Redeemer. 
Tradition  labored  to  bring  back  the  Colossians  towards  the 
law,  not  certainly  towards  that  spiritual  law,  which,  like  a 
sage  preceptor,  would  have  brought  them  to  Jesus  Christ, 
but  towards  that  law  of  works  and  observances  which  was 
far  more  fitted  than  any  other  thing  to  replace  the  idol  of 
self-righteousness  upon  its  pedestal.  We  have  not  the  same 
traditions,  brethren  ;  perhaps  we  have  none,  unless  it  be 
in  some  sort  one  to  have  none,  and  to  be  able  to  say.  What 
is  proposed  for  our  belief  our  fathers  did  not  believe ;  what 
is  proposed  for  our  belief  is  not  believed  elsewhere.  This 
negative  tradition  of  unbelief  and  indifference  is  assuredly 
not  less  powerful  than  the  other  ;  and  we  know  how,  to  the 
disgrace  of  many,  advantage  has  been  taken  of  it  to  impair 
he  Gospel  and  lessen  Jesus  Christ.  We  may  indeed  derive 
rom  tradition  quite  an  opposite  result.     This  also  lias  been 


PHILOSOPHY    AND   TRADITION.  109 

seen,  and,  up  to  a  certain  point,  we  may  rejoice  in  it ;  but, 
since  it  is  necessary  here  to  speak  the  whole  truth,  we  would 
not  be  astonished  should  the  great  enemy  rejoice  to  see  human 
tradition,  even  in  the  direction  of  truth,  substituted  for  the  tes- 
timony of  God,  and  men  continuing  or  beginning  to  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ,  not  because  they  have  recognized  in  him  the 
way,  the  truth,  and  the  life  ;  not  because  in  beholding  him 
they  have  been  internally  constrained  to  render  glory  to  him  ; 
but  principally  because  their  fathers  believed  in  him.  It  is 
a  snare  which  the  prince  of  darkness  lays  for  the  most  faith- 
ful. Perhaps  he  would  prefer  that  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
should  not  be  pronounced  at  all,  this  name  alone  being  a 
power  ;  but,  after  all,  it  does  not  matter  very  much  to  him 
whether  faith  have  this  object  or  that,  provided  that,  reduced 
to  a  lifeless  form,  it  have  nothing  more  of  faith  but  the  form 
and  the  name,  and  Jesus  Christ  be  lessened  or  restricted,  if 
not  in  the  plenitude  of  his  nature  or  of  his  work,  at  least  in 
our  heart,  and  in  the  homage  which  we  owe  to  him.  Thus, 
at  all  times,  whatever  be  the  purport  of  the  tradition,  the 
enemy  employs  it  to  the  prejudice  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  much 
rather  to  our  prejudice  ;  and  the  exhortation  of  the  apostle, 
coming  to  us  across  eighteen  intervening  centuries,  has  lost 
none  of  its  truth  or  its  seasonableness. 

And  let  us  not  forget  that  in  the  Church  of  Colosse,  these 
two  adversaries  both  laid  claim  to  JesUs  Christ :  they  dared 
to  pronounce  his  name,  and  even  set  themselves  up  as  heralds 
of  his  glory,  and  preachers  of  his  doctrine.  It  is  necessary 
to  remember  this,  in  order  to  comprehend  St.  Paul's  decla- 
ration to  the  Colossians,  that  their  new  teachers  taught  them 
"  according  to  the  elements  of  the  world,  and  not  according 
to  Christ."  Would  it  have  been  worth  his  while  to  say,  that 
these  teachers  did  not  teach  according  to  Christ,  if  they  had 
not  pretended  to  preach  according  to  Christ?  No;  but,  so 
far  were  they  from  teaching  according  to  Christ,  that  they  at- 


110  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

tacked  the  fulness  of  Christ,  a  fundamental  doctrine  of  the 
Gospel ;  and  moreover  did  not  teach  (this  is  clear  without 
mentioning  it,)  according  to  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  which  is 
heavenly,  but,  says  St.  Paul,  according  to  the  elements  of 
the  world.  It  was  the  world  in  fact,  the  world  which  has  a 
divided  heart,  the  world  which  aspires  not  to  perfection,  the 
world  which  is  contented  with  an  insipid,  middle  course  ;  the 
world  which  neither  hungers  nor  thirsts  after  righteousness,  the 
world  to  which  all  that  is  divine  in  human  life  appears  folly. 
It  was  the  world  which  furnished  these  teachers  with  the 
materials  of  their  arguments,  arguments  always  sufficiently 
specious  to  the  natural  man.  Setting  out  from  the  world, 
they  arrived  at  the  world  :  it  is  necessary  to  set  out  from 
God,  to  arrive  at  God.  They  were  self-condemned  in  their 
efforts  to  lessen  Jesus  Christ ;  for  whatever  might  be  their 
design,  they  had  not  announced  that  it  was  to  lessen  the  obli- 
gations of  man,  to  lower  his  destiny,  to  lower  his  nature,  to 
lower  religion.  They  would  have  been  very  sorry  that  this 
should  have  been  thought,  they  would  have  protested  against 
the  charge.  They  deserved  it,  however,  and  could  not  but 
deserve  it ;  for  it  is  an  eternal  law,  confirmed  by  the  experi- 
ence of  all  ages,  that  we  cannot  detract  from  the  fulness  of 
Christ,  without  detracting  to  the  same  extent  from  the  per- 
fection of  the  Christian  law ;  and,  in  like  manner,  that  we 
cannot  try  to  curtail  this  perfect  law,  without  feeling  imperi- 
ously urged  to  depose  Jesus  Christ  from  the  throne  on  which 
our  faith  had  placed  him. 

Strange,  yet  true !  the  tradition  of  the  truth  has  some- 
times conveyed  the  tradition  of  falsehood.  Under  the  shelter 
of  an  important  doctrine,  clearly  evinced  and  loftily  pro- 
claimed, and  presiding  over  all  other  doctrine,  a  train  of 
human  inventions  calculated  for  the  consolation  of  the  natural 
man  have  embodied  themselves  and  swelled  the  current  of 
tradition.     In  this  unhallowed  train  there  is  no  error  which 


PHILOSOPHY    AND    TRADITION.  HI 

has  not  found  a  place,  there  is  no  gross  superstition,  no 
degrading  idolatry,  no  shameful  paganism,  which  has  not 
walked  with  head  erect,  proud  at  being  seen  in  the  company 
of  a  truth  universally  honored.  Thus  the  national  flag  is 
sometimes  seen  floating  over  the  vessel  of  the  pirate.  He 
who,  yielding  too  much  to  time,  space,  and  custom,  does  not 
constantly  go  and  draw  anew  at  the  fountain  head,  is  in  great 
danger  of  being,  as  St.  Paul  expresses  it,  drawn  into  bondage 
by  this  false  tradition.  When  a  community  claims  for  itself 
to  be  the  depository  of  the  truth,  when  it  makes  this  claim 
and  the  duty  of  maintaining  it  a  leading  dogma,  or  rather 
tlie  whole  religion  of  its  adherents,  it  may  one  day,  in  the 
name  of  tradition,  which  to  the  greatest  number  is  reason, 
have  the  greatest  number  in  its  favor.  Indeed  the  followers 
of  its  principles  will  far  exceed  the  members  of  its  com- 
munion.  For  a  great  number  of  those  who  profess  to  be  its 
opponents  are,  as  well  as  its  adherents,  the  slaves  of  tradi- 
tion ;  and  therefore,  so  far  as  the  abstract  principle  of  tradi- 
tion is  concerned,  it  may  boldly  claim  them  as  supporters. 
Who  believes  the  truth  for  the  truth's  sake  ?  Who  is  not  to 
a  certain  extent  the  slave  of  tradition  ?  It  is  "not  always 
necessary  that  ages  and  generations  should  conspire  to  form 
a  tradition.  A  single  man  is  sufficient;  the  authority  of  one 
is  the  tradition  of  many.  Idleness  and  servility  enter  into 
agreement  with  presumption,  and  the  attraction,  the  empire 
of  tradition,  is  so  great,  that  the  religion  which  breaks  at 
once  with  tradition  and  philosophy  (I  have  explained  what 
philosophy,)  is  by  that  very  act  a  heroic  religion,  the  most 
energetic  appeal  to  all  that  is  powerful,  or  valuable  in  the 
human  mind,  the  most  formidable  task  that  has  ever  been 
imposed  on  the  pride  and  indolence,  but  at  the  same  time  the 
most  honorable  prospect  that  has  ever  been  opened  to  the 
dignity  of  our  nature.  What  is  proposed  to  our  hope  is  the 
advantage,  the  rare  glory  of  being  able   to  say  in  all  truth, 


112  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

"  I  know  in  whom  I  have  believed."  But  it  is  not  our  glory  ; 
it  is  the  glory  of  the  Gospel  ;  it  is  our  salvation.  It  is  in 
the  name  of  our  salvation,  of  our  eternal  communion  with 
God,  that  St.  Paul  seeks  to  put  us  on  our  guard  against  false 
philosophy  and  vain  tradition. 

Paul  saw  these  two  dangers  at  once,  these  two  evils  com- 
bined,  and  thus  seeing,  exclaims  anxiously,  but  energetically, 
"  Beware,  beware,  beware  lest  those  enemies  lead  you  into 
bondage  !"  for  this  is  the  meaning  and  force  of  his  expres- 
sions. They  are  lively  and  touching.  Does  it  not  seem  as  ^ 
if  you  saw  the  inhabitants  of  a  fortunate  island  wandering 
fearless  on  their  native  shore,  too  near  doubtless  to  that  ocean 
which  is  the  highway  of  their  enemies  1  Their  eye,  unable 
from  the  low  and  level  shore,  to  reach  far  over  the  sea,  per- 
ceives not  the  fatal  ships  which  are  freighted  with  their  chains. 
But  a  vigilant  sentinel  standing  on  the  top  of  a  rock,  (it  is 
the  rock  of  salvation,)  a  vigilant  sentinel,  (it  is  Paul,)  gives 
a  signal  to  his  companions  of  the  approaching  danger.  No 
sooner  has  he  seen  these  ships  upon  the  horizon,  than  with 
true  presentiment,  he  sees  servitude  and  desolation  on  these 
happy  shorfes,  and  from  the  height  of  this  rock  reaching  to 
the  sky,  he  sends  forth  the  timely  alarm,  "  The  enemy  !  the 
enemy  !  Take  heed,  imprudent  men,  that  they  do  not  lead 
you  into  bondage.  Take  heed,  Christian  novices,  that  they 
do  not  mislead  you  by  specious  discourses  ;  that  they  do  not 
rob  you  of  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God,  a 
liberty  scarcely  conquered,  scarcely  tasted.  Take  heed  that 
they  do  not  deprive  you  of  him,  who  is  liberty  itself,  that  Jesus 
before  whose  look  have  fallen  all  the  chains  with  which  you 
were  loaded  by  an  alarmed  conscience,  by  habitual  sin,  the 
power  of  the  flesh,  the  fear  of  suffering,  the  fear  of  death. 
Take  heed  ;  for  soon,  and  without  your  perceiving  it,  nothing 
of  this  mighty,  living  Christ  will  remain  to  you,  but  instead 
of  him,  a  dead  and  useless  Christ.     Take  heed ;  others  who 


PHILOSOPHY    AND    TRADITION.  113 

had  received  him  like  you,  now  wander  without  light  and 
without  a  guide,  without  God  and  without  hope,  in  the  dark 
valley  of  this  mortal  life.  Take  heed,  for  the  greatest  evils 
have  often  been  the  work  of  an  imperceptible  moment,  and 
equally  in  the  spiritual  as  in  the  temporal  life,  shall  "  poverty 
come  as  one  that  travelleth,  and  want  as  an  armed  man.*' — 
Prov.  vi.  11. 


THE  PRECAUTIONS  OF  FAITH. 


"  Beware  lest  any  man  spoil  you  through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit, 
after  the  tradition  of  men,  after  the  rudiments  of  the  world,  and  not 
after  Christ.  For  in  him  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily."— Col.  ii.  8, 9. 

The  Apostle  has  singled  out  two  enemies  of  the  mystery  of 
Jesus  Christ,  philosophy  and  tradition.  We  may  believe  that 
this  was  not  the  first  time  he  had  met  with  them,  and  that  he 
had  been  engaged  with  them  in  personal  combat.  He  knew 
perhaps  by  experience,  how  dangerous  are  their  approaches, 
and  how  deadly  their  grasp.  They  perhaps  had  made  a 
persecutor  of  the  Gospel  of  him  who  at  a  later  period  was 
its  Apostle.  It  was  they  that  had  made  him  take  a  part  in 
the  death  of  Stephen,  almost  as  odious  as  that  of  the  execu- 
tioners of  that  martyr.  For  tradition  and  philosophy  have 
their  fanatics ;  they  can  persecute  and  they  can  hate. 
Christian  faith  itself  until  it  has  become  love,  being  only  a 
system  of  tradition,  gives  no  security  against  such  shameful 
excess.  How  much  must  the  remembrance  of  having  him- 
self been  under  such  a  bondage  have  increased  Paul's  anx- 
iety, on  seeing  the  danger  of  the  Colossians;  and  in  a  personal 


THE    PRECAUTIONS    OF    FAITH.  115 

interview,  how  penetrating  and  expressive  must  his  accent 
have  been  in  pronouncing  the  simple  words,  "  Take  heed  !" 
Be  this  as  it  may,  he  speaks  of  the  danger  as  a  man  who 
knows  and  has  measured  it ;  there  is  not  in  the  passage 
under  consideration,  a  single  word  which  does  not  attest  this. 
Observe  his  touching  endeavor  to  counterbalance  the  disad- 
vantage of  his  absence,  his  urgent  exhortation  to  remain  firm 
in  the  faith,  rooted  and  grounded  to  abound  in  this  faith,  and 
always  thank  God  for  it  anew.  All  this  should  have  engaged 
the  Colossians,  and  should  engage  us  to  take  heed  according 
to  the  Apostle's  exhortation.  But  what  is  it  to  take  heed  ? 
This  remains  for  us  to  consider. 

Does  take  heed  mean  simply,  be  distrustful,  fear,  trem- 
ble ?  Evidently  not,  dear  brethren.  There  would  be  no 
meaning  in  the  words,  if  that  was  all.  To  distrust  and  fear 
is  to  take  heed  to  little  purpose,  or  rather  is  not  to  take  heed 
at  all.  To  take  heed,  means  literally  to  be  on  our  guard  ; 
but  we  cannot  be  so,  if  we  have  not  the  means.  To  take 
heed,  then,  is  to  surround  ourselves  with  certain  precautions, 
certain  safeguards,  certain  means  of  defence.  What  are 
these  in  the  case  in  question  ? 

Many  will  think  that  to  take  heed,  is  to  take  flight ;  in 
other  words,  where  doctrine  is  concerned  to  refused  to  listen, 
to  stop  our  ears.  It  would  be  necessary  in  the  first  place, 
that  the  thing  was  possible,  but  it  is  not.  The  sources  of 
objections  are  too  numerous,  the  forms  which  they  may  as- 
sume too  various,  the  means  and  opportunities  too  easily 
renewed,  and  their  address  in  introducing  themselves  too 
crafty,  they  have  too  many  secret  spies  within  the  fortress, 
to  allow  us  to  flatter  ourselves  that  we  shall  meet  them  sel- 
dom, still  less  that  we  shall  not  meet  them  at  all.  It  would 
first  of  all  be  necessary  to  know  them  by  their  appearance. 
But  how  ?  they  have  sometimes  been  long  at  our  side,  when 
we  think  them  far  off.     Who  can  guarantee  that  in  the  hum- 


116  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

blest  station,  and  the  nnost  profound  retreat,  we  shall  never 
be  assailed  by  them  ?  And  what,  pray,  will  you  do,  if  they 
come  from  yourselves,  if  they  are  formed  within  you  ?  Be- 
sides, did  they  all  come  from  without  us,  nothing  is  more 
subtle  than  the  miasma  of  infidelity  and  doubt.  Whenever 
they  exist,  they  diffuse  themselves  through  the  air,  and  we 
inhale  without  seeing  them.  Objections  hardly  require  to  be 
articulate  in  order  to  be  heard.  They  attach  to  all  subjects, 
impregnate  all  discourses,  they  enter  at  every  pore,  we  are 
invested  before  we  think  ourselves  assailed. 

The  persons  who  believe  it  so  easy  to  avoid  these  rencoun- 
ters suppose  the  objections  of  error  to  be  exactly  similar  to 
the  temptations  of  sin,  against  which  we  certainly  ought  to 
shut  the  door  of  our  heart ;  and  do  we  not  ask  God  daily  not 
to  lead  us  into  temptation  ?  But  it  is  easy  to  see,  brethren, 
that  the  analogy  does  not  hold,  or  at  least  that  while  the  law 
which  enjoins  us  to  shun  temptation  is  absolute,  that  of  shut- 
ting our  ear  to  the  objections  of  infidelity,  or  of  heresy,  is 
subject  to  exceptions.  As  it  is  impossible  not  to  find  persons 
either  disposed  or  compelled  to  hear  these  objections,  and 
nevertheless  incapable  of  refuting  them,  some  at  least  must 
undertake  to  listen,  in  order  that  they  may  be  able  to  answer 
for  the  rest.  This  the  writers  in  defence  of  Christianity 
have  done  at  all  times.  This  St.  Paul  himself  did  with  a 
force  and  prudence  which  have  never  been  surpassed.  Be- 
sides, we  do  not  see  that  believers  are  absolutely  safe,  in 
obstinately  declining  to  combat,  and  shutting  themselves  up 
in  their  creed,  as  in  a  fortress.  It  will  not  be  long  a  fortress. 
For  just  as  when  a  country  is  invaded,  and  all  passes  are 
seized  by  the  enemy,  the  citadel  must  surrender ;  so  the 
faith  which  has  not  ventured  to  descend  into  the  plain,  which 
has  refused  discussion  while  enveloped  on  all  sides  by  infi- 
delity, unless  it  receive  miraculous  support  from  on  high,  is 
obliged  at  last  to  capitulate.     It  lived  only  on  general  con- 


THE    PRECAUTIONS    OF    FAITH.  117 

sent,  and  when  this  fails,  it  falls.  Before  it  fell,  much  evil 
had  been  already  done  in  uncertain  wavering  minds;  for  on 
seeing  it  retire  behind  the  high  walls  of  its  tradition,  (in  fact 
all  it  does  is  to  oppose  one  tradition  to  another,)  it  might  have 
been  said  to  it,  and  has  been  said,  if  your  reasons  for  believ- 
ing are  so  feeble  that  they  cannot  make  head  against  the  rea- 
sons  for  not  believing,  why  do  you  believe  ?  and  if  they  are 
strong,  why  are  you  afraid  to  enter  the  lists  with  your  adver- 
saries? It  is  certain,  brethren,  that  an  infidelity  which  the 
least  sound  awakens,  was  not  dead,  and  that  a  religion  to 
which  the  least  shock  is  mortal,  was  scarcely  alive.  The 
enemies  of  Christianity  would  have  at  least  the  appearance  of 
reason,  and  a  sufficient  excuse  for  their  infidelity,  if  they  saw 
religion  placing  itself  on  regimen,  like  a  patient  who  owes 
the  prolongation  of  his  sad  existence  to  endless  precautions, 
and  renounces  life  in  order  to  keep  him  from  dying.  Chris- 
tians so  acting  would  have  calumniated  Christianity,  and,  I 
fear,  not  calumniated  it  in  vain. 

It  is  admitted  that  the  Christian  is  called  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  his  faith,  and  that  one  method  of  giving  honor  to 
the  Gospel,  is  to  show  that  it  is  "  a  faithful  saying,  and  wor- 
thy of  all  acceptation."  If  so,  must  we  not  admit  that  the 
Christian  ought  not  absolutely  to  avoid  meeting  objections, 
since  to  answer  the  objections  of  infidelity,  is  to  give  account 
of  our  faith  ?  Those  who  present  objections  to  a  Christian, 
should  not  be  allowed  to  part  with  him  with  the  unhappy  idea 
that  he  believes  without  proof,  and  that  his  faith  is  only  a 
stupid  prejudice.  My  meaning  is  not  that  he  should  consider 
himself  bound  to  expose  the  weakness  or  falsehood  of  every 
argument ;  it  is  enough,  if  to  the  reasons  on  which  their  infi- 
delity rests,  he  respectfully  and  meekly  opposes  the  reasons 
on  which  he  grounds  his  faith.  Of  some  more  may  be  re- 
quired than  this,  but  of  none  less ;  for  the  most  ignorant,  as 
well  as  the  most  learned,  have  reasons  for  believing,  reasons, 


118  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

if  not  similar  in  nature,  perhaps  equal   in  value  to  the  rea- 
sons of  the  learned. 

Let  us  halt  here,  brethren.  The  case  which  we  have 
just  supposed,  that  of  the  unlearned  Christian  encountering 
the  learned  infidel  or  heretic,  deserves  our  best  attention  ;  not 
only  because  in  the  world,  and  consequently  amon^  Chris- 
tians, the  ignorant  are  more  numerous  than  the  learned,  but 
also  because  what  we  have  to  say  as  to  the  ignorant,  is  of  in- 
terest for  all  Christians.  I  have  said  ignorant.  Do  I  mean 
those  who  know  absolutely  nothing  ?  If  this  ignorance,  im- 
plying complete  stupidity,  could  exist  among  intelligent  be- 
ings ;  if  there  were  intelligent  beings  who  know  nothing,  and 
could  learn  nothing,  it  is  too  clear  that  they  would  have  no- 
thing to  say,  and  that  consequently  we  could  have  no  direction 
to  give  them  in  regard  to  their  conduct  towards  unbelievers.. 
Under  the  name  of  ignorant,  therefore,  we  must  understand, 
in  general,  those  who  on  any  one  subject,  or  on  several  sub- 
jects, are  less  knowing  than  others.  It  is  necessary  also,  in 
order  to  embrace  all  the  cases  under  the  same  head,  to  in- 
clude among  the  ignorant,  the  simple ;  that  is,  not  those  who 
have  absolutely  no  intellect,  but  have  it  in  an  inferior  degree. 
In  this  way  any  man,  however  learned,  is  ignorant  in  respect 
of  some  other,  and  however  able,  is  simple  in  respect  of  one 
who  is  abler.  The  ablest  or  most  learned  in  one  matter,  be- 
comes simple  or  ignorant  in  another,  so  that  he  who  was  for- 
merly inferior,  becomes  superior.  Supreme  rank  in  know- 
ledge, or  intellect,  is  probably  not  possessed  by  any  individual, 
at  least  no  one  has  a  universal  and  absolute  superiority  over 
the  rest  of  mankind.  Even  if  such  a  mortal  prodigy  existed, 
he  would  be  ignorant  and  simple  in  comparison  with  angels, 
at  all  events  in  comparison  with  God,  before  whom  all  wis- 
dom and  knowledge  vanish  away. 

What  is  the  result  of  all  we  have  said  ?  Nothing  else, 
or  at  least  nothing  more  clearly  than  this :  That  if  the  cer- 


THE    PRECAUTIONS    OF    FAITH.  119 

tainty  of  faith,  the  privilege  of  being  a  Christian,  depended  on 
knowledge  and  intellect;  if  one  could  not  be  a  Christian 
without  being  able  to  answer  all  the  objections  which  science 
may  suggest,  or  intellect  put  into  shape,  the  number  of  Chris- 
tians would  be  infinitely  small,  or  strictly  speaking,  there 
would  be  neither  Christians  nor  Christianity.  For  after  you 
have  solved  all  the  objections  which  are  presented,  how  do 
you  know  that  there  may  not  be  others  more  specious,  of 
which  you  have  never  heard,  and  which  you  are  not  in  a 
state  to  answer  ?  And  though  you  should  know,  and  have 
refuted  all  which  have  arisen  in  your  time,  is  this  enough  ? 
Would  it  not  be  necessary  to  have  refuted  all  which  will  yet 
arise ;  and  you  know  that  they  will  arise  to  the  end  of  time. 
Might  it  not  be  said,  at  a  later  period,  that  it  was  fortunate 
for  you,  that  you  had  lived  before  these  objections,  since  you 
could  not  have  disposed  of  them  so  easily,  as  you  disposed  of 
those  of  your  own  time  ?  You  feel  surprised  at  my  language ; 
but  you  feel  little  surprise  when  you  hear  it  said  of  your  fore- 
fathers, or  of  the  early  Christians,  that  they  believed  at  a  cheap 
rate,  and  that  they  would  have  believed  less  easily,  or  would 
even  have  been  infidels,  in  a  critical  and  inquisitive  age  like 
ours.  And  if  this  is  said  of  your  forefathers,  may  not  pos- 
terity say  it  of  you  ?  When  then  on  this  view  will  it  be  per- 
mitted to  believe  ?  Will  it  be  when  there  are  no  more  ob- 
jections, no  more  opponents  ?  when  the  last  Christian  gets  the 
last  word  in  discussing  with  the  last  infidel  1  This  in  truth 
is  the  utmost  that  can  be  said  ;  for  it  may  always  be  supposed 
that  were  a  new  infidel  to  appear,  he  might  propose  some 
difficulty  which  had  never  been  considered  before. 

But  without  pushing  matters  to  this  extreme,  let  us  confine 
ourselves,  brethren,  to  actual  facts,  and  to  what  is  passing 
under  our  eye.  It  is  certain  that  if  to  be  a  Christian  it  is 
necessary  to  be  able  to  answer  every  objection,  there  are 
few,  very  few  Christians.     In  the  case  supposed,  there  would 


120  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

not  be  many,  even  though  all  Christians  were  to  become 
profoundly  learned,  for  nothing  hinders  infidels  from  acquir- 
ing the  same  advantages ;  and  hence  on  any  given  subject, 
the  learned  Christian  might  find  his  master.  And  how- 
would  you  make  all  Christians  profoundly  learned  ?  How 
would  you  give  all  of  them  the  faculties,  the  leisure,  the  ne- 
cessary dispositions  ?  The  supposition  is  absurd.  You  may,  I 
love  to  think  it,  you  may  place  within  the  reach  of  the  great 
majority  the  proofs,  the  simple  and  luminous  proofs  of  the 
truth  of  Christianity,  so  that  each  may  for  himself  possess  the 
title-deeds  of  the  great  family  of  which  his  profession  makes 
him  a  member.  But  this  is  not  the  thing  required  ;  it  is  to 
be  able  to  elude  the  snare  of  a  subtle  argument,  or  to  be  able 
on  sufficient  grounds  to  deny  a  fact  which  is  affirmed,  or 
affirm  a  fact  which  is  denied.  When  will  you  be  able  to 
bring  the  simple  and  ignorant,  the  great  majority,  such  a 
length  as  this  ? 

I  know  not  the  counsels  of  God,  but  I  doubt  whether  it 
be  one  of  the  purposes  of  his  wisdom,  altogether  to  stop  the 
mouth  of  Infidelity,  and  make  his  religion  in  all  its  parts 
evident,  like  a  truth  in  arithmetic ;  thus  leaving  nothing  for 
good  inclination,  seriousness,  and  meditation  to  do  in  em- 
bracing the  truth,  in  the  search  of  which  all  the  powers  of 
the  mind  have  to  our  day  been  so  usefully  exercised. 

Suppose,  however,  brethren,  that  this  miracle  were  per- 
formed, and  that  by  the  natural  course  of  things,  and  the 
progress  of  human  knowledge,  infidelity  was  struck  dumb  in 
presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  one  thing  is  certain  :  it  is  not  yet 
dumb,  nor  was  it  dumb  in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  and  there- 
fore it  might  always  be  said  of  us,  and  of  them,  that  we 
believed  by  anticipation,  and  on  insufficient  grounds,  in- 
asmuch as  the  difficulties  were  not  then  exhausted,  and 
infidelity  had  not  by  silence  confessed  its  defeat.  Once  more 
then,  if  St.  Paul's  exhortation,  when  he  says  to  us  ''  Take 


THE    PRECAUTIONS    OF    FAITH.  121 

heed."  means  that  we  ought  always  to  hold  ourselves  ready  to 
give  a  peremptory  answer  to  all  objections,  no  Christian  is  enti- 
tled to  the  name,  and  Christianity  itself  cannot  be  said  to  exist. 

Neither  good  sense,  nor  the  conviction  we  have  of  the 
wisdom  of  God  will  allow  us  to  suppose  that  our  faith,  after 
being  founded  on  proofs  which  have  satisfied  our  reason, 
must  ever  be  kept  in  suspense,  or  incessantly  brought  into 
question  by  the  sophistry  with  which  infidelity  may,  to  the 
end  of  time,  be  pleased  to  assail  it.  Though  such  objections 
should  be  raised  in  regard  to  matters  into  which  our  mind 
has  not  penetrated,  and  a  science  to  which  we  are  strangers ; 
though,  while  capable  of  saying  in  general  why  we  believe, 
we  are  not  capable  of  solving  every  unexpected  difficulty 
which  may  be  presented,  it  follows  not  that  we  must  defer 
our  faith  and  our  hope.  What !  are  we  to  be  always  disputing 
and  never  acting  ?  eternally  building  our  house,  and  never 
inhabiting  it  ?  It  is  absolutely  necessary  either  that  we  be 
able  to  believe  although  not  able  to  solve  all  objections,  or 
that  God  give  to  his  Revelation  an  instantaneous,  overwhelm- 
ing evidence.  In  this  case  faith  might  be  said  to  be  destroyed 
by  its  apparent  triumph.  It  would  be  no  longer  faith,  but 
sight ;  and  all  that  generous  activity  which  terminates  in 
belief,  or  which  developes  itself  in  the  train  of  faith,  would  be 
absolutely  suppressed.  The  Christian  would  know,  he  would 
not  believe.     If  so,  would  he  still  be  a  Christian  ? 

We  are  not  then  obliged,  as  Christians,  and  in  order  to 
be  Christians,  to  refute  all  the  objections  which  tradition  or 
philosophy  may  be  pleased  to  urge.  At  this  rate  we  should 
never  be  Christians ;  for  infidelity  will  never  exhaust  her 
store  of  specious  arguments  and  plausible  assertions.  The 
old  mines  are  exhausted,  but  other  veins  will  be  discovered. 
In  search  of  poison,  it  will  dig  down  to  hell.  It  is  not 
desirable  that  it  should  be  otherwise.  Science,  in  its  endless 
evolutions,  alternately  brings  to  light  and  dispels  difficulties 
7 


122  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

which  the  iinnest  believers  cannot  but  observe,  and  which 
they  are  sometimes  the  first  to  discover. 

And  now,  brethren,  be  pleased  to  observe  that,  in  this 
discussion,  we  have  not  availed  ourselves  of  all  our  ad- 
vantages ;  we  have  set  before  you  infidelity,  properly  so 
called,  and  not  heresy.  From  age  to  age,  infidelity  has 
found  its  master ;  and,  perhaps,  were  she  to  take  account  of 
the  battles  which  she  has  lost,  or  were  she  to  consider  the 
fact  that  a  religion  which  has  been  more  contested  than  ever 
any  other  religion  was,  is  still  standing  erect,  full  of  life  and 
full  of  hope,  she  would  consider  it  her  best  course  to  keep 
silence.  If  she  is  not  silent,  it  is  because  she  cannot  be ; 
and  we  may  expect  that  she  will  continue  speaking  to  the 
end  of  the  world.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certain  that  the 
infidelity  which  denies  religion  is  a  far  less  powerful  opponent 
than  the  heresy  which  corrupts  it.  We  need  not  tell  you 
that,  in  the  latter  case,  the  adversaries  are  far  more  numer- 
ous, since  they  include  not  only  the  adherents  of  pure 
Christian  doctrine,  but  several  of  the  enemies  of  this  purity, 
the  followers  of  heresy ;  but  we  will  tell  you  that  there 
has  always  been  more  success  against  the  arguments  of 
infidelity  than  against  the  subtleties  of  heresy ;  that  it  has 
always  been  easier  to  defend  the  truth  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion thken  as  a  whole,  than  to  defend  the  individual  truths 
of  which  it  is  composed.  Heresy  is  more  specious  in  its 
language,  and  more  tempting  in  its  delusions  than  infidelity ; 
one  of  its  worst  deceptions  is,  that  it  is  not  infidelity.  In- 
fidelity, however,  it  is,  though  in  another  manner  and  on  a 
different  ground  ;  infidelity  in  the  livery  of  faith,  under  the 
semblance,  and  it  may  be  with  the  reality  of  love  and  zeal, 
since  heresy  has  often  been  seen  as  eager  in  defending 
Christianity  as  it  was  busy  in  corrupting,  or,  as  we  have 
said,  disparaging  it.  Yes,  heresy  is  infidelity.  The  apostles 
have  never  hesitated  nor  varied  on  this  subject ;  and  it  is 


THE    PRECAUTIOr^S    OF    FAITH.  123 

doubtless  not  to  infidels  properly  so  called,  but  to  audacious 
heretics,  that  it  is  necessary  to  apply  the  words  of  St.  John, 
"  They  went  out  from  us,  but  they  were  not  of  us ;  for  if 
they  had  been  of  us,  they  would  no  doubt  have  continued 
with  us."  1  John  ii.  19.  But  heresy  does  not  thus  present 
itself.  It  raises,  often  sincerely  raises,  the  standard  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  and,  perhaps,  appears  all  the  more  Christian  that  it 
believes  itself  to  be  so ;  and  announces  no  other  intention 
than  to  purify  and  simplify  traditional  dogmatism,  or  to  dis- 
cover in  the  words  of  Scripture  a  more  intimate  and  exquisite 
meaning  than  the  vulgar  are  wont  to  find  in  it.  That  alone, 
brethren,  gives  it  a  great  advantage ;  but  a  still  greater  is, 
that  the  matter  of  which  it  treats  is  more  delicate,  and  less 
palpable,  that  the  facts  which  it  brings  under  discussion  are 
less  material,  and  less  precise.  Here  deceptive  appearances 
are  multiplied,  and  imposture  becomes  more  easy ;  and  here, 
consequently,  in  order  not  to  be  dazzled,  a  keener  perception 
a  more  intimate  knowledge  of  religion  is  required,  a  spiritual 
tact  not  often  met  with,  and  above  all,  a  single  eye  which 
sees  objects  as  they  are,  not  in  consequence  of  superior  pene- 
tration, but  superior  candor.  Herein  lies  the  great  advan- 
tage which  our  fickleness,  or  our  want  of  simplicity,  or  the 
secret  connivance  of  our  heart  gives  to  heresy.  This  it  is 
which  makes  it  so  difficult  to  untie  the  knots  which  she 
weaves,  and  will  enable  her  to  the  end  of  the  world  to  perplex 
a  commencing  faith ;  so  that  should  the  time  come  when  in- 
fidelity, confounded  or  destroyed,  shall  no  longer  lift  her 
voice,  this  other  infidelity  which  we  call  heresy  will  still  be 
heard,  and  be  able  to  find  in  philosophy  or  in  tradition  spe- 
cious arguments  and  embarrassing  objections. 

And,  brethren,  if  we  cannot  prevent  objections  from 
being  raised,  no  more  can  we  prevent  them  from  causing 
embarrassment ;  we  can  neither  anticipate  nor  limit  their 
influence  upon  the  mind  of  any  particular  believer.     How 


124  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

Strong  however  his  conviction,  we  cannot  answer  for  his  not 
being  shaken ;  we  cannot  be  sure  that  by  repetition  and 
combination  with  each  other,  and  by  forming  a  secret 
alliance  with  the  interests  of  the  natural  man,  they  will  not 
obscure  the  clearness  of  his  views,  or  weaken  his  hopes. 
Then,  in  the  same  individual  a  confused  intellect  may  be 
united  with  a  well-disposed  heart,  a  tendency  to  doubt  with 
great  moral  integrity  ;  in  fine,  there  may  be  too  little  infor- 
mation to  avoid  being  perplexed,  and,  as  it  were,  confounded 
by  a  specious  display  of  erudition.  In  such  a  case,  on  what 
will  the  result  depend  ?  On  the  nature  of  the  encounter. 
Ah  !  all  this  makes  it  desirable  that  faith  have  some  addi- 
tional foundation ;  that  it  be  founded,  as  the  Apostle  says  to 
the  Corinthians,  not  on  the  wisdom  of  man  but  on  the  power 
of  God.  The  thing  thus  desired  has  been  granted.  God  has 
granted  it  by  anticipation.  We  are  bold  to  say  it  was  im- 
possible that  God  should  not  grant  it. 

God  evidently  intended  that  his  religion,  which  is  a  his- 
tory, should  have  proofs  like  those  of  any  other  history.  To 
overlook  this  design  would  imply  that  we  had  not  opened  the 
Bible,  and  to  despise  it  would  be  to  despise  God  himself. 
Accordingly  we  do  not  despise  it.  We  bless  God  for  having 
given  this  support  to  our  faith,  and  fed  each  of  us  with 
children's  meat  before  giving  us  strong  food.  We  say  of 
this  proof  what  St.  Paul  said  of  the  word  of  the  prophets, 
that  it  is  sure  ;  that  the  study  of  the  proof  has  contributed 
much  to  the  spread  and  preservation  of  Christianity  in  the 
world,  and  led  many  souls  to  the  portal  of  their  heavenly 
Father's  house.  Our  wish  is  that  these  proofs,  unjustly 
despised  by  some,  and  rashly  neglected  by  others,  should 
be  studied  ;  we  even  desire  that  they  should  be  reduced 
to  their  elementary  principles,  and  placed  within  general 
reach.  But  after  all,  brethren,  three  things  remain  cer- 
tain.    First,  these  proofs  have  not  silenced,  and  for  a  long 


THE    PRECAUTIONS    OF    FAITH.  125 

time  to  come  will  not  silence  infidelity,  which  still  finds,  as 
it  did  in  the  time  of  St.  Paul,  specious  arguments  to  assail 
our  faith.  A  second  thing  equally  certain  is,  that  after  we 
have  acquiesced  in  the  proofs,  a  more  important  work 
remains — to  identify  ourselves  in  spirit  with  the  truths  which 
we  have  received  by  the  intellect ;  and  this  is  faith  properly  so 
called.  The  third  is,  that  very  happily,  in  the  case  of  many 
persons,  this  last  work  not  only  completes  the  first,  but  suffices 
by  itself  alone,  and  renders  all  other  proof  unnecessary. 

Be  not  surprised,  brethren ;  this  work  is  -the  principal, 
the  other  is  only  preliminary. 

Yes,  dear  brethren  ;  the  truth  has  proofs  in  itself;  and 
when  we  furnish  ourselves  with  external  proofs  in  support 
of  this  truth,  it  is  to  all  intents  as  if  we  were  li^htins:  a 
candle  to  see  the  sun.  There  are  such  proofs,  however ; 
and  since  there  are,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  they  were 
necessary.  In  compassion  to  our  weakness,  God  has  placed 
at  our  disposal  that  body  of  historical  proof,  which,  in  its 
combination  and  details,  deserves  our  admiration  as  much 
as  the  most  exquisite  arrangements  of  the  organic  world. 
These  proofs  lead  as  far  as  the  door  of  the  sanctuary,  leaving 
it  to  us  thereafter  to  remain  outside  or  to  enter.  We  may  re- 
main upon  the  threshold,  and  remain  for  ever,  holding  in  our 
hand  the  title-deeds  which  give  us  right  of  entrance  ;  but  if  a 
last  step,  (and  this  decisive  step  is  a  thousand-fold  better  than 
all  the  journey  we  have  previously  made,)  if  a  last  impulse 
which  is  divine  makes  us  enter,  (I  mean,  brethren,  if  we 
place  ourselves  in  personal  and  intimate  relation  with  the 
truth  which  has  just  been  certified  to  us,)  then  we  believe 
with  a  new  faith  and  on  new  evidence ;  then,  to  express 
it  more  properly,  we  believe  truly,  and,  in  so  far  as 
concerns  ourselves,  have  no  more  need  of  the  external 
proofs  which  prepared  our  faith,  as  we  feel  no  more  anxiety 
in  regard  to  the  external  difficulties  by  which  an  attempt 


126  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

might  be  made  to  shake  it.  Our  faith  had,  till  then,  been 
founded  in  some  measure  on  the  wisdom  of  men :  for  though 
God  himself  had  prepared  the  elements  on  which  we  rea- 
soned, the  demonstration  resulting  from  it  did  not  differ  from 
any  demonstration  by  which  we  assure  ourselves  of  an  ordi- 
nary fact.  Our  faith  was  then  founded  on  the  wisdom  of 
man,  but  now  it  is  founded  on  the  power  of  God. 

God  so  willed  it,  brethren,  and  Jesus  Christ  expressly 
enjoined  it.  It  is  true,  he  has  not  excluded  external  demon- 
stration, or  that  furnished  by  outward  facts  which  surround 
the  object  of  faith,  but  are  not  themselves  that  object,  but 
still  he  has  assigned  the  first  place  to  the  internal  proof  with 
which  we  ought  to  begin  ;  and  with  which,  at  least,  it  is  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  end.  "  Believe  my  words,"  said  he  to 
the  Jews,  "  or  if  not,"  (if  you  cannot  believe  with  that  faith 
which  attaches  itself  without  the  aid  of  external  proof  to  the 
very  object  of  faith),  '' if  not,  believe  me  for  the  works' 
sake."  Truth,  then,  according  to  Jesus  Christ,  is  entitled 
to  be  believed  on  its  own  account,  and  is  itself  the  light  by 
which  we  see  all  other  things.  Must  there  still  be  means 
employed  to  see  the  light  ?  This  procedure,  however,  is  not 
enjoined  on  all  men  alike,  although,  in  strictness,  it  might 
be.  But  we  become  really  Christian  only  in  so  far  as  we  at 
least  end  where  we  ought  to  have  begun.  In  regard  to  each 
individual,  the  moment  must  arrive  when  faith  will  no  longer 
be  founded  on  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  on  the  power  of  God, 
and  when  it  will  separate  itself  without  regret  from  the  ar- 
guments with  which  it  was  at  first  contented  ;  just  as  a  con- 
queror who,  assured  of  his  conquest,  fearlessly  sends  away 
the  ships  which  had  brought  him  to  the  port  the  moment  he 
has  disembarked. 

This  faith  the  apostle  characterizes  by  saying  that  it  is 
founded  on  the  power  of  God  ;  because,  in  fact,  it  is  not  by 
any  ordinary  means  of  which  we  can  give  account,  but  by 


THE    PRECAUTIONS    OF    FAITH.  127 

the  power  of  God  that  this  evidence  is  made  complete. 
Truth  comes  to  us  quite  alone  ;  it  does  not  adduce  any  for- 
eign testimony,  it  appeals  to  no  authority  but  its  own ;  it 
shows  itself,  and  we  believe  in  it  as  we  believe  in  the  light 
of  the  sun,  as  we  believe  in  ourselves.  Here,  however, 
there  is  nothing  mystical  or  inconceivable  in  the  principle ; 
the  fact  is  at  once  supernatural  and  natural.  Truth  must 
produce  this  impression  upon  a  heart  which  naturally  loves 
it ;  and  which,  on  its  being  presented,  does  nothing  more 
than  recognize  it.  It  must  appear  to  it  with  an  evidence  of 
which  no  idea  can  be  formed  by  him  who,  though  it  also 
presents  itself  to  him,  has  no  eyes  to  behold  it.  Here  it  is 
with  truth  as  with  those  halves  of  souls  which,  according  to 
the  idea  of  an  ancient  sage,  seek  their  other  halves  in  life, 
recognize  each  other  before  they  have  well  met,  and,  when 
recognized,  at  once  unite  so  closely  that  they  cannot  after- 
wards be  distinguished  from  each  other.  Truth,  indeed,  may 
not  have  produced  this  effect  all  at  once  even  upon  the  best 
disposed ;  but,  when  by  the  gradual  union  of  the  heart  with 
truth,  the  old  man  with  his  lusts  has  been  put  off,  when  we 
are  born  again ;  when  we  have  been  clothed  with  another 
nature,  and  with  affections  of  another  order ;  when  we  feel 
drawn  towards  things  invisible  as  instinctively  as  we  for- 
merly were  towards  things  visible  ;  when  we  repent,  obey, 
love,  and  feel  the  tie  which  attaches  us  to  goodness  drawn 
closer  and  closer  every  day ;  in  one  word,  when  we  feel  the 
contradictions  of  nature  reconciled,  all  its  enigmas  solved, 
all  its  discrepancies  explained,  when  the  truth  is  miracu- 
lously re-established  in  the  soul,  how  can  we  avoid  appealing 
to  the  truth  which  has  produced  this  miraculous  result  1  how 
question  the  reality  of  the  relations  which  have  been  formed  ? 
how  doubt  the  existence  of  what  we  feel,  or  speak  evil  of 
what  we  love  ? 

A  belief  thus  formed,  is  never  lost,  can  no  more  be  lost 


128  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

than  an  animated  being  can  lose  its  instincts  ;  for  this  belief 
has  become  one  of  the  instincts  of  the  soul. 

Brethren,  if  all  those  who  sincerely  profess  the  mystery 
of  the  fulness  of  Christ  believed  in  this  internal  and  living 
faith,  this  faith  which,  so  to  speak,  is  changed  into  sight,  and 
of  which  we  have  endeavored  to  give  an  idea,  it  would  be 
unnecessary  (at  least  in  so  far  as  they  are  concerned)  to 
warn  them  against  the  wiles  of  philosophy  and  tradition,  and 
to  cry  to  them  with  St.  Paul,  "  Take  heed  !"  But  this  faith 
to  which  it  is  necessary  to  aspire,  is  not,  at  the  outset,  the 
portion  of  all  believers.  There  are  many  to  whom  the  staff 
of  external  proof  will  long  be  necessary,  and  for  whom  this 
staff  must  as  far  as  possible  be  preserved ;  there  are  even 
few  who  have  tasted  the  heavenly  gift,  and  the  powers  of  a 
world  to  come,  to  such  a  degree  as  to  be  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  arrows  of  infidelity.  Do  those  of  sin  never  reach 
them  ?  There  were  doubtless,  if  proportion  is  considered, 
as  many  living  Christians  in  the  Church  of  Colosse  as  in 
ours,  and  yet  it  is  to  this  Church,  and  all  its  members  with- 
out exception,  that  St.  Paul  cries  in  our  text,  "  Take  heed 
that  no  one  lead  you  into  bondage,  by  a  philosophy  full  of 
deceit,  and  by  the  tradition  of  men."  What  St.  Paul  wrote 
to  the  Colossians,  may  not  we,  brethren,  say  to  you  ? 

We  say  then  to  all,  "  Take  heed."  And  this  means 
first :  Place  yourselves  above  the  necessity,  and  far  above 
the  peril  of  combat,  by  acquiring  this  precious  faith  of  which 
we  have  just  been  discoursing,  or,  which  comes  to  the  same 
thing,  by  "  holding  the  mystery  of  the  faith  with  a  pure  con- 
science." I  Tim.  iii.  9.  For  this  faith  is  acquired,  and 
is  acquired  by  the  act  of  the  will.  We  do  not  order  our- 
selves to  believe ;  no,  but  we  order  ourselves  to  do  the  works 
of  faith  ;  or  rather  the  faith  which  we  already  have,  orders 
us  to  do  works.  Do  then  these  works ;  not  only  external, 
but  internal  works ;  not  only  works  which  have  other  per- 


THE  PRECAUTIONS  OF  FAITH.  129 

sons  for  their  objects,  but  works  of  mortification,  self-denial, 
vigilance,  spiritual  discipline,  works  of  which  you  are  your- 
selves the  subjects.  Do  the  works  of  the  faith  which  you 
have  ;  do,  if  I  dare  say  so,  the  works  of  the  faith  which  you 
have  not.  You  have  not  yet,  perhaps,  that  deep-seated  faith 
which  is  the  union  of  the  whole  being  with  the  truth ;  you 
have  perhaps  only  that  preliminary  faith  which  has  its  point 
of  support  without  your  soul.  No  matter  ;  as  to  the  object, 
(I  mean  as  to  what  you  believe,  if  not  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  you  believe,)  it  is  one  same  faith.  In  the  one  case  as 
in  the  other,  you  believe  that  God  is  a  jealous  God,  you  be- 
lieve that  God  loved  you  with  an  everlasting  love,  you  be- 
lieve that  his  Son  came  upon  the  earth  to  seek  and  to  save 
that  which  was  lost,  and  consequently  to  seek  you  ;  you  be- 
lieve that  this  loving  friend  continually  intercedes  for  you 
with  the  Father.  This  is  enough;  your  duty  is  assigned, 
your  course  is  traced,  enter  on  it  and  proceed.  If  belief  is 
necessary  to  action,  it  is  equally  true  that  action  is  necessary 
to  belief.  An  incessant  faith  produces  action,  and  action 
produces  a  better  faith.  The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with 
them  that  fear  him,  and  those,  says  Jesus  Christ,  who  will 
do  the  will  of  my  Father,  will  know  (those  who  know  already 
will  always  know  better)  whether  my  doctine  be  of  God,  or 
whether  I  speak  of  myself.  It  is  the  virtue  of  the  Christian 
life  to  rivet  and  seal  Christian  faith  in  the  depth  of  the  soul. 
Truth  becomes  clearer  and  dearer  the  more  sacrifices  we 
make  to  it.  What  we  do  for  it  renders  it  more  proper  to  us, 
unites  it  more  and  more  closely  to  our  soul.  We  prove  this 
by  experience  in  proportion  as  we  apply  it  to  our  life,  be- 
cause a  life  of  obedience,  holiness,  and  love,  is  a  life  of  order 
and  truth  ;  and  we  cannot  call  that  faith  deceptive  in  which 
we  see  all  the  fruits  of  truth  budding  as  upon  their  proper 
stem.  It  is  very  difficult  for  error  to  shake  a  faith  which 
already  has  so  many  monuments  in  our  life,  and  to  which 
7* 


130  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

graces,  unequivocal  graces,  are  evidently  annexed.  The 
certainty  which  results  from  such  experience,  must  be  above 
all  assaults.  Give  this  answer,  then,  brethren,  to  the  warn- 
ing voice  of  the  apostle  ;  hold  the  mystery  of  the  faith  in  a 
pure  conscience,  from  which  neither  philosophy  nor  tradition 
will  ever  more  be  able  to  dissever  it. 

We  attach  still  another  meaning  to  the  expression,  "  Take 
heed,"  by  applying  it  to  a  great  part  of  believers.  It  be- 
longs not  to  all  to  hazard  or  seek  such  rencounters.  No  doubt 
each  must  know  in  whom,  and  why  he  believes,  and  we  have 
been  pointing  out  the  best  manner  of  knowing  it.  Each 
must  be  ready  to  give  the  reasons  of  his  faith,  whether  they 
be  comprehended  or  not ;  and  without  doubt,  if  these  reasons 
are  experimental  and  deep-seated,  it  cannot  be  pretended 
that  the  natural  man  comprehends  them,  for  they  are  spir- 
itual. But  it  belongs  not  to  every  one  to  engage  in  all  kinds 
of  discussion.  Unless  it  be  pretended  that  each  is  bound  to 
be  ignorant  of  nothing,  it  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  not  the 
duty  of  each  to  accept  every  challenge.  A  Christian  may 
say,  that  with  more  knowledge  than  it  has  been  permitted 
him  to  acquire,  an  objection  which  seems  to  him  embarrass- 
ing, might  appear  very  frivolous.  He  may  say,  I  will  be 
annoyed  perhaps  by  an  objection  which  at  bottom  is  nothing, 
at  which  an  abler  man  would  laugh,  and  which  an  infidel 
would  take  good  care  not  to  urge  in  presence  of  one  better 
informed.  Is  it  reasonable  that  I  should  allow  myself  to  be 
overcome  by  a  phantom,  and  that  I  should  stake  my  peace, 
my  strength,  mj  spiritual  life,  against  an  adversary  who 
risks  nothing  with  me,  and  who  plays  a  winning  game  ?  No 
brethren,  no ;  but  I  hasten  to  add,  that  there  ought  here  to 
be  neither  cowardice  nor  sloth.  If  we  refuse  one  combat,  it 
must  be  to  accept  another.  He  who  turns  about  in  presence 
of  one  enemy,  must  show  front  to  another.  He  must  justify 
to  himself  this  apparent   want  of  courage.     He    must  put 


THE    PRECAUTIONS    OF    FAITH.  131 

himself  in  a  condition  to  oppose  internal  evidence  to  external 
objections.  When  he  wants  words,  his  life  must  become  a 
refutation  of  heresy,  so  that  heresy  seeing  his  actions  may 
begin  to  feel  doubtful  of  itself,  and  to  ask  whether  Jesus 
Christ,  from  whom  this  man  evidently  receives  grace  upon 
grace,  does  not  really  possess  the  glorious  fulness  which  it 
has  hitherto  refused  to  admit. 

But,  in  fine,  whether  or  not  you  have  a  calling  to  discuss 
objections  which  tend  to  disparage  Jesus  Christ,  they  have 
reached  you,  and  you  have  been  forced  to  hear  them.  You 
have  comprehended  them,  you  have  judged  them  worthy  of 
examination,  you  feel  yourselves  capable  of  this  examina- 
tion, you  feel  obliged  to  make  it,  perhaps,  for  yourselves  and 
for  your  brethren.  So  far  well ;  but  at  this  critical  moment, 
examine  yourselves.  On  meeting  with  an  objection  which 
tends  to  disparage  Jesus  Christ,  and  with  him  Christianity, 
examine  whether  it  makes  your  heart  tremble  with  alarm, 
or  beat  with  sympathy.  See  whether  there  is  not  something 
in  you  which  is  secretly  in  intelligence  with  the  enemy,  and 
makes  you  wish  that  Jesus  Christ  be  lowered  ;  for  the  lower- 
ing of  Jesus  Christ  is  that  of  your  obligations,  your  sacrifices, 
your  religion.  I  do  not  say  that  even  on  discovering  in 
yourself  such  secret  connivance,  you  ought  to  refuse  the 
combat  which  is  offered,  or  decline  the  examination  which  is 
proposed.  No;  but  in  every  case  it  is  necessary  that  you 
know  yourself. 

It  is  necessary  at  the  moment  of  rencounter  to  put  your 
heart  in  safety.  It  is  necessary  to  reserve  in  your  inner  man 
certain  principles  which  no  discussion  is  permitted  to  en- 
croach upon,  or  even  bring  into  question.  Be  the  case  with 
all  the  rest  and  be  the  result  of  this  discussion  what  it  may, 
it  remains  irrevocably  fixed  in  your  conscience — God  is  God, 
I  must  live  for  him,  love  him  above  all,  do  his  will,  nothing 
but  his  will,  his  whole  will.     You  have  arrived  at  these  con- 


132  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

victions,  I  admit,  by  the  very  path  by  which  it  is  pretended 
that  you  ought  not  to  pass ;  these  convictions  have  taken 
root  in  the  very  mystery  which  they  are  obliging  you  to 
discuss.  But  this  is  nothing  at  all  to  the  purpose ;  they  are 
true  in  themselves,  they  are  henceforth  evident  to  you ;  the 
lessening  or  the  destruction  of  the  mystery  of  your  faith 
would  doubtless  do  them  a  mortal  injury,  by  uprooting  them 
from  your  heart,  though  they  cannot  be  uprooted  from  your 
mind.  After  all  and  in  spite. of  all,  they  are  truths.  You 
know  this.  Well,  you  say  to  yourselves :  Before  as  after 
discussion  this  is  true,  this  is  necessary  ;  all  that  contradicts 
it,  all  that  weakens  it,  is  necessarily  false  ;  I  will  admit 
nothing  at  variance  with  these  immutable  truths;  if  I  cannot 
make  them  a  touchstone  to  recognize  truth,  they  will  be  a 
touchstone  to  discern  error.  And  as  it  is  still  true  that  God 
is  the  natural  protector  of  all  truth,  this  adds  to  all  your  con- 
victions one  conviction  more,  and  it  is  that  you  may  pray  with 
confidence,  and  even  ought  to  pray  that  he  would  maintain 
the  belief  of  these  truths  in  your  heart.  Well,  if  by  his  pro- 
tection this  faith  is  put  beyond  danger,  we  say  to  you  as  was 
said  to  the  knights  in  the  tournaments  of  the  middle  ages, 
On !  gallant  combatants  !  We  feel  at  ease.  This  faith  will 
be  the  guardian  of  the  other. 

Take  heed,  nevertheless,  the  apostle  continues  to  say ; 
the  ground  is  covered  with  snares.  It  is  necessary  to  know 
them  and  see  them.  If  you  had  to  do  only  with  infidelity, 
its  name  would  warn  you,  and  perhaps  a  strong  feeling  of 
duty  would  be  necessary  to  make  you  risk  the  encounter. 
It  insults  or  at  least  denies  your  creed,  and  however 
little  your  faith  may  be,  you  feel  a  stronger  repugnance  on 
its  approach.  But  heresy  does  not  insult,  does  not  deny,  or 
at  least  if  it  denies,  it  is  while  affirming.  It  honors  religion, 
it  only  wishes  to  perfect  it,  or  rather  it  wishes  to  bring  it 
back  to  its  primitive  purity.     It  is  a  respectful  infidelity. 


THE    PRECAUTIONS    OF    FAITH.  133 

Let  this  homage  not  deceive  you.  Be  not  so  simple  as  allow 
yourself  to  feel  secure.  Charitable  to  the  intentions  which 
must  always  be  supposed  good,  and  which  are  so  oftener  than 
is  supposed,  show  no  favor  to  error  itself,  and  look  to  its  acts, 
not  its  professions.  Above  all,  do  not  allow  yourself  to  be 
led  away  by  any  self-evident  truth,  which  may  appear 
amidst  errors  which  tend  to  diminish  the  fulness  of  Christ, 
or  the  fulness  of  his  grace,  or  the  fulness  of  his  wisdom.  If 
because  of  this  p  artial  truth  you  admit  the  error,  you  will 
admit  all  errors  ;  for  they  all  have  truth,  and  indeed  are  only 
truths  misplaced.  Do  not  therefore  consider  merely  whether 
there  is  truth  in  the  opinion  which  is  proposed  to  you.  There 
is  truth  necessarily,  truth  always,  but  the  question  is, 
whether  some  other  truth  which  ought  to  be  the  complement, 
or  counterpart  of  that  which  you  perceive,  has  not  been  sup- 
pressed. Ask  your  opponent  what  he  makes  of  that  truth  in 
the  system  which  he  proposes ;  insist  upon  his  giving  it  a 
place,  and  see  what  effect  the  restoration  of  this  suppressed 
truth  will  have,  with  reference  to  the  mystery  of  Christ. 
Hold  fast  this  principle,  this  legitimate  and  incontestable 
principle,  and  you  will  see  many  phantoms  disappear. 

We  have  not  said  all  that  might  be  said  on  this  important 
subject,  and  how  can  we  ?  But  instead  of  saying  too  little, 
we  should  have  said  too  much,  if  the  end  of  all  these  pre- 
cautions, and  if  Paul's  exhortation  were  indifferent  to  you, 
and  if,  instead  of  addressing  persons  who  believe  in  the  ful- 
ness of  Jesus  Christ,  and  who  feel  the  fulness  of  this  mystery, 
we  were  speaking  in  presence  of  men  who  have  not  received 
this  truth,  or  who,  having  received  it  from  mere  complais- 
ance, do  not  cling  to  it  so  much  as  to  many  less  certain 
truths,  which  relate  to  temporal  or  social  order.  We  have 
not  supposed,  and  we  do  not  suppose  that  this  is  your  case. 
Without  being  able  to  affirm  that  all  in  this  assembly  believe, 
with  a  personal  and  living  faith,  in  the  mystery  of  which  St. 


134  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

Paul  here  treats,  we  are  entitled  to  presume  that  the  greater 
part  would  be  sincerely  alarmed  at  the  idea  of  seeing  Jesus 
Christ  destroyed  or  impaired.  Even  where  a  very  clear 
account  is  not  given  of  the  reasons  of  one's  faith,  there  may 
be  something  more  than  a  faith  of  prejudice.  We  may 
know,  we  may  feel  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  key  to  all  the 
enigmas  which  perplexed  human  nature,  the  only  hope  of  a 
troubled  conscience,  the  only  name  not  only  by  which  we 
can  be  saved,  but  by  which  this  earthly  existence  has  a 
meaning,  and  is  not  a  cruel  mockery.  Who  amongst  us, 
though  daily  separating  himself  from  Jesus  Christ,  would 
wish  to  see  Christ  taken  away  ?  Who  amongst  us  has  not, 
according  to  the  expression  of  the  apostle  in  the  text,  in  one 
sense  or  other,  received  Jesus  Christ  ?  received  him  with 
more  or  less  respect,  treated  him  with  more  or  less  regard, 
cultivated  him  with  more  or  less  assiduity,  but  at  all  events 
received  him  ?  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  to  those  I  speak,  to 
my  companions  in  sin,  misery,  and  exile,  who  out  of  Christ 
see  nothing  which  could  accord  with  their  destiny,  or  fill  up 
the  immense  void  in  their  heart,  or  console  them  in  all  the 
sorrow  of  their  soul,  and  dissipate  all  its  terrors ;  to  those 
who,  having  met  Jesus  Christ  and  contemplated  him,  have 
exclaimed,  Certainly  this  is  the.  Desire  of  nations!  Certainly 
this  is  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life !  and  who,  after  having 
thus  found  Jesus  Christ,  if  they  happened  to  lose  him  would 
no  longer  find  any  thing,  no  longer  seek  any  thing  but  him, 
being  deeply  and  truly  convinced  that  whosoever  has  not 
embraced  him  by  faith,  remains  without  God  and  without 
hope  in  the  world  :  To  those  I  speak,  and  I  say  to  them  : 
Do  you  repent  of  having  embraced  Jesus  Christ,  or  do  you 
congratulate  yourselves  on  having  met  with  him  ?  Are  you 
happy  to  know  him  ?  Do  you  feel,  at  least,  that  it  would 
make  you  unhappy  not  to  know  him  ?  Well !  take  heed 
that  he  be  not  taken  from  you ;  for  however  little  you  enjoy 


THE    PRECAUTIONS    OF    FAITH.  135 

the  possession  of  him  to-day,  to-morrow  you  will  be  misera- 
ble at  the  loss  of  him,  and  to  allow  him  to  be  disparaged  is, 
(doubt  it  not,)  to  lose  him. 

After  having  received  Jesus  Christ,  you  wish  doubtless 
to  walk  in  him ;  after  having  believed,  you  wish  not  only  to 
continue  to  believe,  but  to  believe  more  and  more.  Alas  ! 
that  so  many  things  should  oppose  each  other  in  your  heart, 
that  your  unbelief  should  lie  in  so  many  directions,  and 
assume  so  many  forms,  and  that  the  ordinary  temptations  of 
life  should  make  so  many  breaches  in  your  faith  !  Will  it 
still  be  possible  for  dexterous  sophisms,  for  a  few  high-sound- 
ing expressions,  perhaps  even  devoid  of  meaning,  to  sport 
with  your  convictions,  and  dissipate  this  treasure  which  it  is 
so  difficult  to  guard  ?  The  thing  is  only  too  easy,  only  too 
probable.  May  this  faith  grow  within  you  by  the  exercise 
which  you  give  it,  and  in  tears  and  joy  acquire  that  tri- 
umphant brightness  which  puts  all  darkness  to  flight !  iVIay 
you  thus  quickly  gain  the  victory  over  that  false  philosophy 
and  human  tradition,  which  you  must  sooner  or  later  encoun- 
ter !  But  while  waiting  for  the  happy  day  which  will  shelter 
you  for  ever,  watch  over  this  treasure  which  is  still  imper- 
fectly secured;  keep  your  heart,  keep  your  mind.  Employ 
for  your  defence  all  the  noble  means  which  God  allows  you, 
and  commands  you  to  use,  those  noble  and  loyal  arms  which 
are  carried,  as  St.  Paul  says,  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left, 
but  which  in  whatever  hand  carried,  must,  as  he  also  says, 
be,  "the  armor  of  righteousness."  2  Cor.  vi.  7.  Now 
the  combat  in  question  is  not  one  of  those  which  may  issue 
in  a  dubious  result,  and  allow  both  sides  to  claim  the  victory. 
You  will  come  forth  vanquished  or  triumphant,  weaker  than 
before  or  stronger  ;  if  you  come  not  off  with  a  better,  it  will 
be  with  a  weaker  faith ;  if  your  faith  is  not  lessened,  it  will 
be  improved.  This  must  be  the  issue.  You  must  be  more  than 
ever  rooted  in  Jesus  Christ  by  faith ;  if  formerly  you  were 


136  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

poor,  you  must  now  be  rich  in  faith  ;  if  formerly  you  thanked 
yourselves  for  believing,  you  must  now  joyfully  give  thanks 
for  it.  "  As  ye  have  therefore  received  Christ  Jesus  the 
Lord,  so  walk  ye  in  him ;  rooted  and  built  up  in  him,  and 
stablished  in  the  faith,  as  ye  have  been  taught,  abounding 
therein  with  thanksgiving."  Col.  ii.  6,  7.  Such  is  the 
exhortation  of  the  apostle,  and  in  a  manner  the  sum  of  his 
address,  and  such  is  the  wish  which  we  form  for  you  and  for 
ourselves,  entreating  our  heavenly  Father  to  have  pity  on  his 
children,  to  guide  them  in  this  darksome  world,  and  make 
them  walk  among  those  rocks  and  briers  as  on  a  level  path, 
to  the  glory  of  his  goodness.     Amen. 


IMAGINARY  PERFECTION. 


"  Why,  as  though  living  in  the  world,  are  ye  subject  to  ordinances,  .  .  . 
after  the  commandments  and  doctrines  of  men  1  Which  things  have 
indeed  a  show  of  will-worship  and  humility,  and  neglecting  of  the 
body  ;  not  in  any  honor  to  the  satisfying  of  the  flesh."— Col.  ii.  20, 
22,  23. 

The  law  of  the  Gospel,  my  dear  hearers,  is  a  law  of  perfec- 
tion. It  is  so  by  its  very  principle.  For,  in  making  the 
object  of  our  faith  to  consist  in  the  personal  and  intimate 
union  of  our  nature  with  God,  in  the  humiliation  and  volun- 
tary death  of ,  Him  in  whom,  by  whom,  and  for  whom  are 
all  things,  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  it  demands  our  whole 
heart  and  life  for  this  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  God  hav- 
ing been  made  one  with  us,  we  ought  to  be  one  with  him. 
But  acknowledging  this,  do  we  not  acknowledge  that  we  are 
called  to  perfection  ?  It  is  true  that  the  law  of  the  Gospel  is 
a  law  of  liberty ;  it  is  true  that  before  it  the  minute  and 
numberless  precepts  of  the  old  law  have  disappeared  like 
shadows  before  the  sun ;  but  this  is  merely  because  it  is 
perfect.  All  those  particular  precepts  which  seem  to  extend 
the  sphere  of  obedience  really  impose  limits  upon  it,  for  this 


138  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

simple  reason,  that  when  a  particular  thing  is  commanded 
another  is  forbidden.  How  numerous  soever  the  precepts, 
they  are  not  innumerable ;  however  remote  the  limit,  it  lies 
somewhere.  This  law  may  be  oppressive  without  being 
infinite.  Well  then,  there  is  another  law  which  is  infinite 
without  being  oppressive :  it  is  the  law  of  liberty  ;  in  other 
words,  the  law  of  love,  which  is  the  liberty  of  the  soul. 
Love  receives,  knows  no  limit.  "  The  love  of  Jesus,"  says 
Thomas  A'  Kempis,  "  always  stimulates  to  what  is  most 
perfect.  He  who  loves,  runs,  flies.  He  is  joyful  and  free, 
and  nothing  stops  him ;  he  gives  all  for  all.  Love  often 
knows  no  measure.  Its  fervor  makes  it  boil  over  beyond  all 
measure.  It  never  alleges  impossibility,  because  it  believes 
all  things  possible  and  lawful."* 

Hence,  brethren,  it  is  to  those  who  have  accepted  the  law 
of  the  Gospel  as  a  law  of  liberty  or  love  that  such  language 
as  the  following  is  addressed  :  "  Be  perfect."  2  Cor.  xiii.  11. 
"Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  is  perfect."  Matt.  v.  48.  At  least  it  is  to  them 
only  that  these  precepts  have  an  obvious  meaning ;  it  is  to 
them  that  the  entire  sacrifice  of  their  persons  appears  simply 
a  reasonable  service.  Romans  xii.  1.  And  as  to  those  who 
are  not  yet  under  the  government  of  this  holy  liberty  of  love, 
precepts  like  these  warn  while  astonishing  them.  Just  as 
the  former  class  proceeded  from  the  principle  to  the  conse- 
quence— in  other  words,  from  perfect  love  in  God  to  perfect 
obedience  in  man — the  latter,  on  encountering  this  precept, 
are,  as  it  were,  forced  to  go  back  from  the  consequence  to 
the  principle  ;  in  other  words,  from  perfect  obedience  in  man 


*  Amor  Jesu  ad  desideranda  semper  perfectiora  excitat.  Amor 
liber  est  et  non  tiencetur.  Dat  omnia  pro  omnibus.  Amor  modum 
saepe  nescit,  sed  super  omnem  modum  fervescit :  de  impossibilitate  non 
causatur,  quia  cuncta  sibi  posse  et  licere  arbitratur. — Imit.  iii.  c.  5. 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  139 

to  perfect  love  in  God.  In  taking  account  of  the  precept 
they  have  been  led  to  take  account  of  the  motive.  They  go 
from  the  law  to  the  lawgiver,  from  man  to  God  ;  and,  if  we 
may  so  speak,  from  the  cross  of  the  Christian  to  the  cross  of 
Jesus  Christ.  In  one  word,  the  law  of  perfection  found  in 
the  Gospel  has  made  them  again  find  this  law  within  them- 
selves.  Whatever  surprise  it  may  have  occasioned  them, 
they  perceive  that  their  conscience  consents  to  it,  and  that 
their  best  idea  was  then  expressed  by  anticipation.  They 
feel  that  even  independently  of  the  Gospel  they  are  called 
to  perfection ;  that  the  commandment,  according  to  the  ex- 
pression of  St.  John,  is  both  old  and  new  ;  and  that  the  new 
law  has  done  nothing  more  than  re-engrave,  by  the  help  of 
a  divine  chisel,  a  primitive  and  eternal  law. 

This  law  of  perfection,  which  the  Gospel  calls  also  the 
law  of  the  Spirit,  (because  the  Spirit  tends  naturally  to  per- 
fection,)  is  opposed  by  the  law  of  our  members,  or  the  law  of 
the  flesh,  which  we  might  call  the  law  of  imperfection,  be- 
cause incapable  of  denying  the  law  absolutely,  it  necessarily 
contents  itself  with  weakening  it  or  changing  its  nature. 
Practically,  it  goes  further  than  to  lower  the  view  we  take 
of  our  duties  and  our  destiny ;  it  furnishes  arguments,  it 
teaches  a  system  for  the  use  of  our  unbelief;  it  traces  ideal 
limits  where  love  sees  none ;  it  distinguishes  arbitrarily 
between  precepts  and  counsels.  It  marks  out  a  point  some- 
times further  off  and  at  other  times  nearer — a  point  at  which 
it  is  indeed  necessary  -to  arrive,  but  at  which  each  is  at 
liberty  to  stop.  It  finds  in  Christian  morality,  with  much 
that  is  necessary,  something  that  is  superfluous.  Perfection 
it  regards  only  as  a  specialty  which  is  not  binding  without  a 
particular  vocation,  and  which  is  cultivated  rather  from  taste 
than  duty.  It  indeed  does  not  condemn  those  who  cultivate 
it ;  occasionally  it  admires  them.  Its  language  is,  The 
beautiful  for  them,  the  good  for  me.     Now  it  is  well  known 


140  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

that  the  beautiful  is  only  the  ornament  of  the  good,  and  that 
no  man  is  bound  to  be  sublime.  But  its  views  are  not 
always  so  moderate,  and  it  would  only  be  necessary  to 
contradict  it  on  this  point,  to  insist  upon  the  necessity  of  what 
appears  to  it  a  work  of  supererogation,  to  force  from  it  an 
avowal  that,  according  to  its  final  conclusion  and  fundamen- 
tal idea,  every  thing  beyond  the  limits  which  it  has  traced  is 
mere  fancy  and  chimera. 

It  is  true  that  it  would  not  be  easy  for  it  to  show  us  the 
place  where  the  great  river  of  Christian  truth  divides  and 
begins  to  run  in  two  channels,  the  one  with  a  flood  which 
continues  flowing  on  toward  the  ocean  of  God,  and  the  other 
in  a  sluggish  stream  which  becomes  stagnant,  and  is  lost  in 
the  sand  long  before  it  reaches  the  place  of  its  destination. 
It  would  be  very  difficult  to  find  two  Christianities  in  Chris- 
tianity, two  distinct  races  in  the  spiritual  posterity  of  the 
second  Adam,  two  degrees  of  obligation  in  an  equal  grace, 
two  Spirits  in  the  same  work.  It  would  be  difficult  to  make 
out,  contrary  to  the  declaration  of  Christ  himself,  that  some 
may  come  after  him  without  denying  themselves  and  taking 
up  their  cross ;  that  by  some  the  kingdom  of  heaven  must  be 
taken  by  force,  while  by  others  it  may  be  gained  without 
striking  a  blow  ;  and  that  in  regard  to  a  certain  number  of 
Christians  the  Gospel  modifies  the  absolute  terms  in  which  it 
declares  that  "he  who  saveth  his  life  shall  lose  it."  Accord- 
ingly, brethren,  without  having  given  any  proof  of  all  this, 
the  law  of  the  flesh  tramples  the  Gospel  itself  under  its  feet, 
and  establishes  a  system  which  is  alike  unfounded  and  inde- 
finite. Indefinite,  for  by  supposing  that  obedience  has  limits, 
we  must,  whether  we  will  or  not,  hold  that  disobedience  has 
limits.  We  thus,  by  anticipation,  grant  every  thing  to  the 
flesh  when  we  withhold  any  thing  from  the  Spirit. 

But  the  law  of  the  flesh,  (I  believe,  brethren,  you  are  too 
familiar  with  the  language  of  the  Gospel  to  be  ignorant  that 


IMAGINARY   PERFECTION.  141 

what  it  calls  the  flesh  is  the  entire  natural  man,  including 
his  intellect  and  moral  powers),  the  law  of  the  flesh  has 
raised  up  another  opponent  to  the  law  of  perfection. 

Observe,  that  the  object  of  the  natural  man  is  not  to 
escape  in  one  way  rather  than  another  from  the  just  autho- 
rity of  Godj  the  only  object  is  to  escape.  When  the  prod- 
igal son  left  his  father  after  claiming  his  patrimony,  he  had 
not  perhaps  any  intention  to  waste  his  substance  in  dissipa- 
tion, to  which  he  may  not  even  have  been  particularly 
inclined.  What  determined  him  was  his  longing  for  inde- 
pendence, his  impatience  of  paternal  restraint.  Perhaps 
when  he  gave  himself  up  to  excess  his  only  motive  was  to 
prove  that  he  was  free,  and  get  a  better  taste  of  his  liberty. 
We  too,  all  of  us,  wish  to  be  free,  but  the  liberty  we  wish 
is  not  that  of  love.  It  is  the  desire  of  this  false  and  improper 
liberty  that  makes  us  quit  our  father's  house.  The  giving 
way  to  this  desire  was  man's  first  sin,  and  it  is  a  sin  of 
which  all  others  are  only  different  forms  or  different  results. 
But  an  astonishing  circumstance,  and  one  which  shows  how 
deeply-rooted  in  our  nature  this  propensity  to  separate  our 
will  from  that  of  God  is,  that  often,  after  having  embraced 
the  Gospel,  and  consequently  offered  ourselves  to  God  as  a 
living  and  perpetual  sacrifice,  without  reserving  any  thing 
to  ourselves,  we  secretly  take  back  what  we  had  given,  and 
resume  possession  of  ourselves  in  the  very  sacrifice  which 
we  make  to  him,  and  even  by  means  of  this  sacrifice.  Nor 
is  this  all.  Under  pretence  of  giving  a  better  sacrifice,  of 
separating  ourselves  more  completely  from  ourselves,  we, 
while  apparently  exceeding  the  fervor  of  the  most  zealous, 
and  the  submission  of  the  most  obedient,  secure  a  successful 
resistance  to  the  absolute  authority  of  God.  This  is  the  most 
subtle  and  refined  form  of  rebellion.  Success  would  be  less 
certain  if  the  thing  were  premeditated,  or  rather,  it  is  a 
thing  which  would  never  be  undertaken  if  it  was  premedi- 


142  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

tated.  We  could  not  seriously  propose  to  ourselves  an  act 
of  hypocrisy  so  detestable,  perhaps  painful ;  we  would  not 
take  such  a  circuitous  route  to  regain  possession  of  our  will. 
There  is  no  room  for  calculation  here,  the  thing  is-^n  impos- 
sibility. The  moment  we  begin  to  calculate,  we  should  cal-. 
culate  very  differently.  The  most  common  would  be  pre- 
ferred to  this  extraordinary  way,  and  we  would  proceed  to 
do  the  thing  at  once  by  the  course  that  was  easy  and  simple. 
No  deception  is  more  sure  of  success  than  that  which  begins 
by  deceiving  the  deceiver  himself,  no  snare  more  infallible 
than  that  in  which  he  who  sets  it  allows  himself  to  be  caught. 
And  this  is  the  cause  why  the  insubordination  of  the  heart, 
under  the  form  of  a  more  absolute  and  perfect  submission, 
proves  so  seductive,  and  has  so  many  involuntary  followers. 
Those  who  furnish  examples  of  it  are,  in  some  sort,  sincere 
in  their  imposture.  Before  deceiving  others,  they  are  them- 
selves deceived.  But  by  whom  ?  By  their  own  heart. 
Our  heart  is  our  first  seducer  :  the  heart,  says  the  prophet, 
is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  desperately  wicked,  who 
can  know  it  ?  No  one  ;  not  even  does  each  know  his  own. 
And  because  our  heart,  given  up  to  itself,  is  continually 
deceiving  us,  it  was  necessary  that  God  should  give  it  a 
monitor,  a  censor  who  is  never  deceived.  This  censor,  this 
monitor  is  his  word.  It  was  not  enough  that  this  word  should 
once  for  all  open  the  eyes  of  the  natural  man,  who  is  a  kind 
of  savage  that  must  be  taught  true  dependence,  and  in  this 
dependence,  true  liberty.  Even  in  man,  when  freed  from 
his  wild  nature,  and  disciplined  by  the  Gospel,  there  is  still 
to  be  conquered  a  more  interior  and  hidden  principle  of  re- 
volt ;  there  still  remains  to  be  extirpated  a  root  of  bitterness, 
which,  if  we  do  not  guard  against  it,  will  find  a  soil  for  itself, 
and  draw  nourishment  from  the  bosom  of  religion  itself;  there 
remains  an  infidelity  to  be  guarded  against,  an  infidelity 
which  dares  to  charge  fidelity  itself  with  being  unfaithful, 


'  IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  143 

and  whose  language  and  deportment  bear  the  impress  of  an 
extraordinary  sanctity,  which,  if  that  were  possible,  "  would 
deceive  the  very  elect."     Matt.  xxiv.  24. 

The  apostles  were  not  slow  in  denouncing  an  enemy  who 
had  busied  himself  in  sowing  pernicious  tares  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Church,  and  the  distinct  instructions  which  St.  Paul 
has  left  us  will  serve  at  all  times  to  detect,  under  his  most 
diversified  disguises,  this  false  friend  of  the  Gospel,  who,  in 
presenting  us  with  the  image  of  an  elusory  perfection,  has 
no  other  object  than  to  make  us  despise,  and  consequently 
neglect,  the  true  perfection  of  the  Christian  life. 

In  doing  this,  brethren,  St.  Paul  does  not  enter  into 
lengthened  discussion.  He  seldom  employs  argument  against 
the  partisans  of  this  false  perfection.  He  seldom  does  more 
than  intimate  by  what  pretexts  and  false  semblances  this 
subtle  enemy  of  perfection  will  cover  his  pernicious  design. 
He  warns  us  like  St.  John  not  to  believe  every  spirit,  not  to 
take  up  a  new  path  on  the  credit  of  certain  words  which  may 
be  used  alike  by  truth  and  error.  He  reminds  us  that  there 
is  a  false  obedience,  a  false  humility,  a  false  mortification  as 
well  as  a  true.  He  tells  us  that  imperfection  may  easily  as- 
sume  the  mask  of  a  higher  perfection,  and  that  infidelity  can 
easily  pass  itself  off  for  fidelity,  and  fidelity  in  its  highest 
form.  He  thus  leads  us  to  search  in  the  Gospel,  and  in  our 
own  consciences,  for  the  characteristics  of  true  faithfulness. 
This  which  satisfies  St.  Paul,  is  sufficient  for  us  :  for,  if  he 
does  not  tell  us  what  these  characteristics  are,  all  that  he 
wi'ote  and  spoke,  all  that  his  colleagues  and  Jesus  Christ 
himself  taught,  the  whole  tenor  and  body  of  the  Gospel,  give 
full  and  clear  explanations  of  what  is  not  told  here,  or  is 
only  hinted  at. 

What  are  the  seductive  appearances  in  which  error  will 
clothe  itself  in  order  to  induce  us  to  neglect  true  perfection, 
and  embrace  in  its  place  a  phantom  of  perfection  ?     We 


144  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

have  ihem  here,  and  they  are — The  appearance  of  a  volun- 
tary worship,  the  appearance  of  humility,  the  appearance  of 
a  holy  contempt  for  the  wants  of  the  body. 

The  reality  of  each  of  these  things  is  essential  to  Christi- 
anity. Is  it  voluntary  worship  ?  God  declared  from  the 
days  of  old,  that  he  was  preparing  a  people  of  ready  mind, 
and  this  people  is  none  else  than  the  Christian  Church.  Is 
it  humility  ?  Has  not  God  said  that  he  will  teach  his  way 
to  the  humble  ?  and  has  not  Jesus  Christ  said,  "  Learn  of 
me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart  ?"  Has  not  St.  Paul 
said,  "  Mind  not  high  things,  but  condescend  to  men  of  low 
estate  ?"  Is  it  mortification  of  the  flesh  ?  It  is  written, 
*'  He  that  soweth  to  the  flesh,  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corrup- 
tion." It  is  written,  "  Do  not  the  will  of  the  flesh  to  fulfil 
the  lusts  thereof."  St.  Paul,  joining  example  to  precept, 
acts  so  as  to  be  able  to  say,  "  I  keep  my  body  under ;"  and 
before  him  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  of  right  all  the  riches  of 
the  earth  belonged,  denying  himself  what  the  Creator's  liber- 
ality has  not  denied  to  the  foxes  and  fowls  of  the  air, 
had  not  where  to  lay  his  head.  But  you  do  not  suppose, 
brethren,  that  we  are  going  to  quote  all  the  passages  which 
prove  directly  or  indirectly  that  a  willing  mind,  humbleness 
of  heart,  and  the  suppression  of  carnal  lusts,  are  essential  to 
the  Christian.  It  would  be  necessary,  in  that  case,  to  quote 
the  whole  Gospel ;  and  to  what  purpose,  since  you  are  al- 
ready convinced  of  this  truth  of  which  we  only  wished  to 
remind  you  in  passing  ? 

Yes,  doubtless,  the  obedience  of  the  Christian  is  a  volun- 
tary obedience,  since  it  is  the  obedience  of  love  ;  and  in  no 
other  way  could  it  be  so.  Whether  we  love  or  not  the  obli- 
gation is  the  same,  we  must  obey ;  if  we  love  not,  the  obe- 
dience is  painful,  because  the  law  is  not  lovely  to  him  in 
whose  eyes  the  lawgiver  is  not  lovely.  The  choice  is  not 
between  obeying  and  not  obeying,  and  St.  Paul  has  well  ex- 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  145 

pressed  it  in  speaking  of  himself:  "For  although  I  preach 
the  Gospel,"  (and  the  humble  believer  will  say,  although  I 
serve  God)  "  1  have  nothing  to  glory  of,  for  necessity  is  laid 
upon  me.  Yea,  woe  is  unto  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel !" 
"  For  if  I  do  this  thing  willingly  I  have  a  reward,"  (undoubt- 
edly, the  reward  is  already  in  his  heart,)  "  but  if  against  my 
will,  a  dispensation  of  the  Gospel  is  committed  unto  me." 
1  Cor.  ix.  16,  17.  You  see  the  choice  is  not  between 
obeying  and  not  obeying,  but  obeying  sincerely,  unless  in- 
deed it  be  said  (and  we  subscribe  to  it)  that  there  is  no  true 
obedience  without  love ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  obedience 
is  fulfilled  only  in  love.  But  I  entreat  you,  brethren,  to  re- 
member that  love  fulfils  obedience,  and  does  not  abolish  it 
any  more  than  faith  abolishes  the  law  ;  that  he  who  loves 
obeys  joyfully,  but  still  obeys  ;  that  he  obeys  better  than 
before,  but  still  obeys ;  that  if  the  good  which  he  does  has 
become  a  pleasure  to  him,  this  good  has  not  thereby  ceased 
to  be  a  duty.  Of  this  last  fact  he  will  be  made  too  sensible 
in  the  intermissions  or  faintings  of  his  love  ;  for  then  he  will 
acknowledge,  that  the  good  which  yesterday  he  did  joyfully, 
he  must  to-day  do,  though  without  joy.  Nothing,  no  attain- 
ments of  the  spiritual  life,  however  sublime,  can  abolish 
obedience  ;  and  the  spiritual  life  cannot  be  advancing  when 
obedience  is  on  the  decline.  The  proof  of  progress  is  better 
obedience.  The  willing  mind  is  a  characteristic  of  the 
Christian  ;  obedience  is  another ;  they  walk  together  and 
run  together,  they  grow  with  the  same  growth  ;  the  willing 
mind  increases  with  obedience,  and  obedience  with  the  wil- 
ling mind  ;  for  they  have  the  same  principle,  and  are  only 
two  forms  of  the  same  life. 

It  is  this  intimate  union,  this  entire  oneness,  so  to  speak, 
of  the  willing  mind  and  obedience  that  the  prince  of  evil 
would  destroy.     He  tries  to  persuade  us  that  the  one  ele- 
ment excludes  the  other,  or  that,  at  least,  they  can  only  erj- 
8 


146  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

feeble  each  other.  Your  mind,  he  seems  to  say,  will  be 
willing  only  when  you  shall  forget  that  you  obey,  or  rather 
when  you  shall  lose  the  feeling  of  obedience.  Strange  idea ! 
as  if  he  who  follows  his  chain  willingly  had  no  chain  ;  (ah  ! 
will  he  not  feel  it  the  moment  he  stops  ?)  as  if  love,  which 
is  represented  as  the  enemy  of  obedience,  were  any  thing 
else  than  a  mediator,  a  means  of  reconciling  obedience  and 
liberty  !  But  still,  in  i;)is  way  we  are  seduced.  The  prin- 
ciple  of  obedience  is  taken  from  us  in  the  name  of  love  ; 
and,  under  the  pretext  of  teaching  us  to  render  God  a  ser- 
vice more  worthy  of  him,  we  are  taught  only  to  obey  our- 
selves. As  well  might  we  be  told  once  more,  "  Ye  will  be 
as  gods."  For,  if  we  obey  not,  or  if  we  only  obey  ourselves, 
what  are  we  ?  It  is  at  least  certain  that  we  are  no  longer 
men ;  and  since  angels  obey,  we  are  no  longer,  as  Scripture 
says,  a  little  lower  than  the  angels  ;  we  are  far  superior  to 
them.  After  this  it  were  vain  to  talk  of  service  and  wor- 
ship ;  there  is  no  worship  without  obedience.  Profusion  of 
acts,  diversity  of  observances,  largeness  of  sacrifices,  are  not 
obedience  ;  we  do  not  employ  our  will  to  obey  ;  we  find 
ourselves  entire  where  all  idea  of  ourselves  ought  to  have 
been  lost ;  we  protest  on  our  knees  against  our  dependence, 
and  elevate  ourselves  thus  high  not  to  be  nearer  to  our  prin- 
ciple, but  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  the  law ;  we  do  more 
than  the  law  asks  in  order  to  escape  from  what  it  asks. 
Every  thing  is  good,  every  thing  easy  to  us  compared  with 
obedience. 

I  know  well,  brethren,  that  with  quite  an  opposite  inten- 
tion, with  the  view  of  yielding  a  better  obedience,  we  may 
impose  upon  ourselves  imaginary  duties,  and  allow  them  to 
take  the  place,  and  occupy  the  time,  belonging  to  more  real 
duties.  But  besides  that  such  an  error  is  not  common,  since 
he  who  is  eager  to  obey  is  not  so  easily  misled,  it  is  one  of 
those  \o  which  God  himself  is  indulgent.     It  is  the  stubble 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  147 

or  wood  which  the  fire  will  consume,  but  without  injuring 
the  foundation  on  which  these  ephemeral  works  have  been 
built.  The  vow  of  the  sons  of  Rechab,  who  interdicted 
themselves  and  their  posterity  from  using  wine,  was  not  in 
accordance  with  any  precept,  or  even  any  principle  of  the 
law  of  God.  Perhaps  the  vow  was  injudicious  ;  perhaps 
there  was  little  wisdom  in  laying  an  obligation  not  only  on 
the  living,  but  on  posterity  yet  unborn.  Yet  the  children  of 
Rechab  were  blessed,  and  the  Almighty  declared  "  Jonadab 
the  son  of  Rechab  shall  not  want  a  man  to  stand  before  me 
for  ever."  Jer.  xxxv.  19.  The  thing  which  the  Lord 
blessed  on  this  occasion  is  one  which  he  always  blesses,  and 
without  which  nothing  can  be  blessed — obedience.  The 
Rechabites  thought  that  they  were  fulfilling  a  duty.  The 
Rechabites  had  obeyed.  It  seems  as  if  God  was  unwilling 
to  look  farther ;  the  principle  of  obedience  is  so  precious,  so 
fundamental,  so  easily  neglected,  that  God,  when  he  meets 
with  it,  does  not  inquire  too  strictly  into  the  form  in  which  it 
has  been  realized.  He  does  not  quarrel  captiously,  if  I  dare 
so  speak,  with  regard  to  the  garb  of  the  principle,  for  in  his 
eyes,  as  in  those  of  sound  sense,  "  the  body  is  more  than 
raiment ;"  and  as  the  abstinence  which  the  Rechabites  pre- 
scribed to  themselves  had  nothing  bad  in  itself,  he  blesses  it, 
judging  that  obedience  cannot  be  too  much  encouraged,  nor 
the  scruples  of  obedience  handled  too  tenderly. 

But  to  do  what  God  does  not  ask,  and  just  because  he 
does  not  ask  it,  to  enter  a  certain  path  because  he  has  not 
pointed  to  it,  to  go  beyond  his  commandment  in  order  to  be, 
if  possible,  no  longer  under  his  jurisdiction,  to  prescribe  to 
one's  self  difficult  duties  in  order  to  have  the  pleasure  of  obey- 
ing one's  self;  this  will-worship,  as  St.  Paul  designates  it,  is 
not  the  worship  of  God,  but  that  of  an  idol.  This  idol  is  the 
human  self;  which,  broken  in  conscience  by  the  cross  of 
Jesus  Christ,  persists,  broken  as  it  is,  in  raising  itself,  and 


148  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

rises  the  higlier  the  lower  its  fall.  Perfidious  suggestions  of 
the  indestructible  enemy  !  how  many  souls  have  ye  not  carried 
back  to  the  world  by  the  path  of  an  extraordinary  devotion 
and  refined  piety  ;  led  back  to  the  world  merely  by  your 
having  subjected  them  to  the  illegitimate  empire  of  self ; 
but  led  back  to  the  world  in  all  senses,  be  it  ever  remember, 
ed,  because  it  is  impossible  to  place  self  again  upon  the 
throne  without  suffering  all  the  consequences  of  this  unhappy 
restoration  ;  because  it  is  impossible  for  him  who  wishes  to 
do  only  his  own  will  ever  to  do  any  other  will  than  that ; 
because  it  is  impossible  for  the  natural  man,  when  renewed, 
to  content  himself  with  the  food  with  which  a  fantastical 
and  arbitrary  devotion  presents  him  ;  because  it  is  impossible 
for  the  ordinary  passions  of  the  animal  man  to  be  vanquished 
in  a  soul  which  is  not  submissive  ;  because,  in  fine,  the  in- 
terests of  a  spirituality  which  may  suffice  for  a  soul  united 
to  God  by  an  obedience  full  of  love,  or  by  a  love  full  of  obe- 
dience, cannot  suffice  for  an  "  unregenerate  soul,  which  in 
these  severe  practices  of  devotion,  and  this  assiduous  service 
of  God,  has  really  sought  only  itself.  This  soul,  however  it 
may  seem,  has  not  come  out  from  the  world  ;  and  perhaps 
the  only  difference  between  it  and  souls  confessed  to  be 
worldly  is,  that  though  as  near  danger  as  any  of  them,  it 
thinks  itself  much  farther  off*. 

To  pass  now  to  the  second  watchword  of  the  partisans  of 
imaginary  perfection — Humility.  There  is  a  true  and  there 
is  a  false  humility.  By  the  latter  we  understand  not  hypo- 
critical humility,  or  a  voluntary  disguise  of  pride,  but  a 
humility  which  deceives  itself  in  making  a  wrong  choice  of 
its  object.  For  though  it  is  true  that  we  cannot  humble  our- 
selves too  much,  this  does  not  hold  true  of  every  kind  of 
abasement ;  and  he  who  humbles  himself,  but  not  before 
God,  or  in  the  name  of  God,  humbles  himself  unseasonably. 
I  say  more  ;  it  is  due  to  God  himself,  it  is  due  to  the  princi- 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  149 

pie  which  leads  us  to  humble  ourselves  before  him,  not  to 
humble  ourselves  to  any  other.  If  every  Christian  is  ready 
to  acknowledge  himself  the  "  chief  of  sinners;"  if  every 
Christian,  looking  upon  each  of  his  brethren  as  more  excel- 
lent than  himself,  seeks  the  lowest  place  more  willingly  than 
the  first,  no  Christian  will  prostrate  his  dignity  of  man  and 
Christian  before  a  title,  a  fortune,  or  a  name.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  may  recognize  the  Christian  by  the  modest  noble- 
ness of  his  mien  and  the  meek  freedom  of  his  speech  in  pres- 
ence of  the  noble  and  powerful  of  the  world.  He  who  is 
intimidated  by  the  show  of  grandeur,  the  lustre  of  human 
glory,  or  even  sjjperiority  of  talent  and  knowledge  ;  he  who 
sees  in  a  man,  without  being  able  to  say  what,  any  thing 
else  than  a  man  ;  he  who  in  presence  of  one  of  the  favorites 
of  nature  or  fortune  demeans  himself  by  the  demonstration 
of  a  servile  obsequiousness  ;  he,  if  he  is  a  Christian,  con- 
ceals it  very  carefully  ;  or  rather,  to  speak  correctly,  what 
he  conceals  so  carefully  is  nothing.  You  have  no  difficulty 
in  admitting  this,  brethren.  But  you  are  perhaps  saying  to 
yourselves  that  this  is  not  the  question,  for  how  could  you 
mistake  the  voluntary  abasement  of  man  before  man  for 
religion,  far  less  for  the  perfection  of  religion  ?  No,  cer- 
tainly ;  but  the  principle  which  places  a  man  at  the  feet  of  a 
man  may  place  him  at  the  feet  of  an  angel,  a  saint,  a  martyr, 
or  her  whom  "  all  ages  will  call  blessed."  By  means  of 
an  ill-advised  humility,  you  may  transfer  to  others  that  glory 
which  God  has  declared  that  he  will  not  give  to  another. 
Because  some  one  among  the  children  of  men  appears  to 
have  been  made  more  excellent  than  ourselves,  and  has,  per- 
haps, in  fact  been  so,  we  place  him,  by  our  homage,  by  the 
side  of  that  jealous  God  beside  whom  none  should  be  placed. 
Is  this  a  simple  error  ?  Do  we  gain  nothing  (at  least  ac- 
cording to  the  natural  man)  by  thus  humbling  ourselves? 
Are  these  pretended   middlemen,  whom  we  place  between 


150  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

ourselves  and  God,  a  means  of  communicating  or  a  means  of 
dispensing  with  him  ?  Is  it  for  the  sake  of  the  Spirit  or  the 
sake  of  the  flesh  that,  not  content  with  the  only  Mediator 
who  has  been  given  us,  we  place  between  ourselves  and  him 
other  mediators,  not  only  less  powerful,  (of  this  we  are  well 
aware,)  but  also  less  holy  ;  who,  if  they  do  not  represent  to 
us  all  grace,  cannot  represent  the  whole  law,  and  in  dispar- 
aging  Jesus  Christ  as  a  Saviour,  disparage  him  as  a  Law- 
giver and  King  ?  But  methinks,  brethren,  I  hear  you  saying. 
Go  and  tell  this  to  our  brethren  of  the  Romish  Church  ;  it 
is  not  applicable  to  us,  who,  like  yourself,  look  with  pity  on 
all  that  mythology  which  they  have  ingrafted  upon  the  Gos- 
pel. Though  it  should  apply  directly  only  to  them,  it  applies 
indirectly  to  you  as  men ;  for  this  error  is  a  human  error, 
which  your  fathers  shared,  which  you  yourselves  would 
share  if  you  had  been  born  in  the  bosom  of  that  church,  and 
which  she  has  derived  from  the  very  source  from  which  you 
derive  all  your  errors.  But  is  it  true  that  you  are  perfect 
strangers  to  this  false  or  mistaken  humility  ?  We  must  allow 
you  to  judge. 

As  we  are  speaking  only  of  those  who  afTect  a  perfection 
superior  to  that  of  which  the  Gospel  has  traced  the  image,  and 
not  of  those  who  seek  pretences  for  falling  short  of  this  mo- 
del, we  have  not  to  discourse  to  you  of  that  perfidious  and 
fatal  humility  which  leads  some  to  refuse  the  grace  of  the 
Gospel,  because  they  say  they  are  unworthy  of  it ;  as  if  any 
one  could  be  worthy  of  a  favor,  and  as  if  the  very  idea  of 
grace  did  not  imply  unworthiness !  We  speak  here,  with 
St.  Paul,  of  those  who  wish  to  bid  upon  Christianity,  and 
who,  as  if  Christianity  did  not  humble  them  sufficiently, 
look  curiously  around  them  for  some  other  subject  of  con- 
trition, or  some  other  means  of  self-abasement.  In  truth,  if 
St.  Paul  was  entitled  to  say  to  the  Athenians  that  he  found 
them  too  superstitious,  we  might  say  of  those  persons  that 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  151 

they  are  too  humble ;  for  the  lowest  degree  of  abasement 
does  not  satisfy  thom,  and  one  might  say  that  they  seek  a 
place  lower  than  the  lowest.  But  do  they  know,  or  do  they 
not  know,  that  beyond  every  thing  there  is  nothing,  and  there 
cannot  be  a  void  in  a  void,  and  that  any  thing  beyond  hu- 
mility is  not  humility,  but  falsehood  or  meanness  ?  Without 
insisting  on  the  last  epithet,  let  us  fix  on  that  of  falsehood  ; 
and  be  it,  if  you  will,  falsehood  altogether  involuntary.  If 
it  is  humility  to  confess  "  that  we  are  conceived  and  born  in 
sin,  inclined  to  evil,  incapable  in  ourselves  of  any  good,"  is 
it  also  humility  to  persuade  ourselves  that  we  are  mere  no- 
thing before  God,  not  only  in  works  and  feelings,  but  even 
in  nature;  and  that  God  absorbs  us  incessantly,  just  as  we 
at  each  inhalation  absorb  the  air  which  surrounds  us?  If  it 
is  humility  as  well  as  reason  to  acknowledge  that  God's 
ways  are  not  our  ways,  nor  his  thoughts  our  thoughts,  is  it 
also  humility  to  interdict  ourselves  from  judging  of  his  dis- 
pensations according  to  the  ideas  of  goodness  and  justice 
which  he  has  placed  within  us,  and  thereafter,  notwithstand- 
ing, exhort  one  another  to  admire  those  very  dispensations ; 
as  if  we  could  admire  them  without  applying  some  kind  of 
measure  to  them  ?  If  it  is  humility  to  declare  that  we  are 
saved  by  grace,  absolutely  by  grace,  and  that  whatever 
goodness  is  in  us  is  implanted  by  God  ;  is  it  also  humility  to 
look  as  with  indifference  on  all  that  passes  within  us  and  on 
all  we  do  that  we  may  be  able,  we  say,  to  maintain  the  doc- 
trine of  free  grace  unimpaired  ?  If  it  is  humility  to  depend 
only  on  the  strength  of  God,  and  acknowledge  that  "  when 
we  are  weak,  then  are  we  strong,"  is  it  also  humility  to  in- 
terdict ourselves  from  every  voluntary  act,  to  lose  ourselves 
in  a  passive  and  beatific  contemplation,  and  to  wait  till  God 
impels  us  to  do  his  will ;  when  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
the  first  impulse  from  God  is  that  which  urges  to  seek  his 
will?    If  it  is  humility  to  believe  ourselves  as  blind  as  weak^ 


153  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

and  to  expect  from  God  counsel  as  well  as  strength,  is  it  also 
humility  to  renounce  the  use  of  our  reason,  to  ask  for  signs 
in  the  heavens  and  on  the  earth,  as  if  conscience  were  not 
the  first  of  signs  ?  Are  we,  in  fine,  to  employ  the  word  of 
God,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  as  a  kind  of  divination  ?  If  it  is 
humility  to  acknowledge  that  this  human  intellect,  which, 
according  to  Scripture,  is  a  divine  lamp,  penetrating  to  the 
greatest  depths,  is  at  the  same  time,  as  regards  salvation, 
blind,  and  incapable  of  finding  the  true  path ;  is  it  also 
humility  to  despise  it  where  it  is  not  to  be  despised,  and, 
under  pretext  of  the  abuses  which  have  been  made  of  them, 
to  neglect  talents  of  which,  like  all  others,  we  shall  be  re- 
quired to  give  account  ?  If  it  is  humility  to  acknowledge 
that  "  that  which  is  highly  esteemed  among  men  is  abomina- 
tion before  God,"  if  it  is  humility  to  acknowledge  that  in  the 
kingdom  of  God  the  first  will  be  last,  is  it  also  humility  to 
confide  without  discernment  to  ignorant  or  feeble  intellects, 
only  because  they  have  faith,  the  most  delicate  spiritual 
interests,  and  the  government  of  the  Church  of  Christ  ?  It 
is  by  making  us  in  all  these  things  outrage  humility  that  the 
enemy,  in  order  to  lay  waste  our  field,  introduces  into  it  a 
thousand  other  enemies,  and  among  them  even  pride.  And 
even  pride  !  Should  we  not  say,  and  more  especially  pride  ? 
For  no  qualities  harmonize  more  than  false  humility  and 
pride.  Add  spiritual  indolence,  sectarianism,  and  fanaticism, 
and  you  will  still  have  an  incomplete  list  of  the  evils  which 
follow  in  the  train  of  this  dangerous  illusion. 

The  absence  of  all  indulgence  towards  the  flesh  is  the 
last  of  the  traits  which  give  to  false  perfection  an  appearance 
of  Avisdom.  No  pretext,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  is  more 
specious.  That  instrument  with  which  our  soul  was  pro- 
vided in  order  to  manifest  itself  to  others,  and  also  to  itself, 
and  in  order  to  correspond  with  the  sensible  world,  which  is 
at  once  the  object  and  the  theatre  of  its  activity  j  this  instru- 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  153 

ment,  I  say,  for  the  body  is  nothing  else,  has  failed  to  fulfil 
its  purpose.  And  while  in  all  other  beings  obedient  and 
docile  matter  reproduces  exactly  the  idea  of  which  it  is  the 
form,  the  human  body  seems  to  have  violated  the  stipulations 
of  the  contract  which  associated  it  with  the  soul.  It  seems, 
I  say,  for  in  itself  it  is  neither  docile  nor  indocile.  The 
soul,  when  it  ceased  to  be  united  to  the  Father  of  spirits, 
rushed  down  a  declivity,  at  the  top  of  which  it  previously 
stood,  God  alone  detaining  it.  It  slid  down,  if  we  may  so 
speak,  from  the  world  of  spirit  to  the  world  of  matter ;  from 
the  sphere  of  principles,  or  of  reason,  towards  the  sphere  of 
instinct ;  the  external  sense  becoming  more  active  in  propor- 
tion as  the  perceptions  of  the  internal  sense  (which  may  be 
called  the  sense  of  divine  things)  became  less  frequent  or 
more  confused.  And  no  one,  brethren,  no  one  knows  to 
what  degradations  it  would  descend,  did  not  divine  pity, 
alas!  did  not  pride  detain  it  in  its  descent.  For  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  the  first  sin  was  a  sin  of  pride ;  and  pride, 
inimical  as  it  is  to  God,  does  not  consent  to  every  species  of 
abasement.  On  the  contrary,  it  often  produces  a  shuddering 
abhorrence  of  abasement.  In  fine,  however,  the  equilibrium 
has  been  destroyed ;  the  body,  our  ancient  servant,  is  now 
only  an  enemy  which  conquers  or  is  conquered,  but  it  is  still 
an  enemy.  Or  rather,  the  body  has  changed  its  master. 
It  always  serves,  but  instead  of  serving  the  mind  it  serves 
the  flesh.  Yes,  the  hody  serves  the  fiesli^  for  the  flesh  and 
the  body  are  not  the  same  thing.  They  are  often  dis- 
tinguished from  each  other  in  the  Gospel ;  they  are  so  in  our 
text,  in  which  St.  Paul  shows  us  the  partisans  of  a  fictitious 
holiness,  treating  the  hody  with  harshness  for  fear  of  flatter- 
ing the  Jlesh.  The  body  or  the  members  which  we  ought, 
according  to  St.  Paul's  expression,  to  make  the  servants  of 
righteousness  and  holiness,  (Rom.  vi.  19,)  are,  under  the 
orders  of  the  flesh  or  animal  principle,  the  servants  of  im- 
8* 


154  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

purity  and  unrighteousnes.  The  body,  then,  is  a  servant  to 
be  restored  to  its  true  master,  who  is  the  Spirit ;  but  the  true 
enemy  of  the  Spirit  is  the  flesh  ;  and,  accordingly,  in  the 
Gospel  it  is  not  the  body  but  the  flesh  which  is  condemned ; 
for,  as  St.  Paul  says,  it  is  with  the  flesh,  not  with  the  body, 
that  we  serve  the  law  of  sin.  Rom.  vii.  25.  Jesus  Christ, 
clothed  mysteriously  with  this  thoroughly  and  universally 
tainted  flesh,  has  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh,  (Rom.  viii.  3,) 
although  he  had  overcome  it,  although,  as  he  himself  has 
said,  the  world  had  nothing  in  him.  John  xiv.  30.  On  the 
cross  he  ratified  the  malediction  of  the  flesh,  by  giving  to  de- 
struction his  pure  and  innocent  body  united  to  this  same 
flesh  or  animal  principle,  to  which  he  never  granted  any 
thing.  It  was  because  he  represented  the  whole  body  of 
mankind,  whose  flesh  has  been  cursed,  and  who  never  could 
have  known,  or  have  been  willing  to  believe,  that  in  order 
to  live  to  the  Spirit  it  is  necessary  to  die  to  the  flesh,  had  not 
Jesus  Christ,  as  man,  proclaimed  the  universal  and  irre- 
vocable malediction  of  the  flesh. 

After  this,  all  was  clear.  It  was  known  that  the  flesh 
must  die ;  on  no  other  terms  could  a  man  be  a  Christian.  It 
was  known  that  those  who  are  Christ's  have  (both  by  antici- 
pation and  in  principle)  crucified  the  flesh,  with  its  affections 
and  lusts,  (Gal.  v.  24,)  and  that  they  are  bound  to  be  always 
sacrificing  it  anew.  But  a  class  of  men  arose,  who,  wishing 
to  be  better  Christians  than  Jesus  Christ,  extended  to  the  body 
what  ought  to  be  understood  only  of  the  flesh,  and  inferred 
the  destruction  of  the  body  from  that  of  the  flesh.  Here, 
brethren,  mistake  was  easy.  The  flesh  is  united  to  the  body, 
and  it  is  impossible,  in  certain  cases,  to  assail  the  flesh  with- 
out wounding  the  body.  They  confounded  them,  and  be- 
cause Jesus  Christ  had  condemned  the  flesh  they  condemned 
the  body.  This  mistake  was  not  new,  and  is  not  even  pecu- 
liar to  the  Christian  Church.    It,  on  the  contrary,  belongs  to 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  155 

all  times,  and  is  universal.  The  voice  of  conscience  and  ex- 
perience had  denounced  the  flesh  as  a  great  enemy,  but  it 
was  not  seen  that  behind  it  is  a  greater  enemy,  of  whom  ac- 
count should  be  taken  ;  it  was  not  seen  that  the  soul  was  the 
true  culprit,  and  the  body,  the  organism  attached  to  the  ser- 
vice of  the  spirit,  was  unjustly  accused  of  being  the  principle 
and  author  of  the  evil.  Many  sects  declared  inveterate  war 
against  it,  and  saw  no  remedy  for  the  great  evil  which  they 
were  forced  to  confess,  except  in  a  suicide  more  or  less  pro- 
longed. Christianity,  although  it  has  been  assailed  by  this 
error,  is  far  from  sanctioning  it ;  if  you  compare  it  with 
other  religions  you  will  find  that  it  has  restored  the  body  to 
its  proper  place.  Christianity  has  never  represented  the 
body  as  a  tyrannical  and  troublesome  appendage  to  the  mind, 
but  as  an  essential  part  of  man.  Christianity  has  honored 
the  body  by  inviting  it  to  be  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Christianity  has  honored  our  members  by  destining  them,  as 
I  have  already  observed,  to  be  instruments,  and,  so  to  speak, 
weapons  of  righteousness  and  holiness.  Christianity,  in  fine, 
admits  the  glorified  body  to  share  in  the  destiny  of  the  glori- 
fied  spirit,  and  therefore  cannot  have  declared  war  against  it. 
What  it  has  done  is  this  :  it  has  condemned  the  flesh  as  a 
principle  of  sin  ;  but  not  being  able  to  separate  the  flesh  from 
the  body,  these  being  both  two  and  one,  it  behooved  to  consent 
that  the  body  should  in  certain  cases  suffer  what  the  flesh 
suffered.  The  sword  of  the  executioner,  in  beheading  the 
martyrs,  condemned  sin  in  their  flesh,  but  at  the  same  time 
destroyed  their  body.  The  zeal  of  faith,  another  sword,  an- 
other flame,  prematurely  in  the  Apostle's  case,  wears  out  the 
bodily  strength  which  a  more  moderate  activity  and  longer 
intervals  of  repose  might  have  maintained  some  years  longer. 
But  in  these  cases  the  destruction  of  the  body  is  not  sought 
on  its  own  account,  is  not  the  end  in  view,  and  truly  never  is 
the  aim  of  the  Christian.     He  preserves  his  body  to  employ 


156  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

it,  and  how  often  even  does  he  preserve  it  by  employing  it ! 
If  the  Christian  spares  it  not,  it  is  because  God  so  wills ;  if 
he  in  general  treats  it  rigorously,  if  he  keeps  it  in  subjection, 
it  is  because  in  this  body  there  is  a  sinful  flesh,  which  it  is 
necessary  to  treat  harshly  and  keep  under ;  but  he  does  not 
go  beyond  this,  for  it  is  not  permitted  him  to  destroy  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  the  harshness,  or  rather  se- 
verity, more  or  less  strict,  with  which  he  treats  his  body, 
never,  except  in  the  extraordinary  cases  of  which  we  have 
spoken,  goes  so  far  as  to  destroy,  or  even  weaken  the  bodily 
strength,  of  which,  as  of  other  gifts,  he  must  give  account. 
As  the  result  of  the  whole,  we  conclude  that  worldlings  de- 
stroy their  bodies,  and  Christians  preserve  them. 

This  is  a  distinction  which  those  whose  error  is  reproved 
by  our  text,  do  not  know  or  will  not  make.  And  it  is  true 
that  if  they  wished  to  go  beyond  the  spirit  of  evangelical 
mortification,  they  had  no  other  method.  In  confining  them- 
selves to  the  exact  terms  of  the  evangelical  principle,  which 
was  the  mortification  of  the  flesh,  and  not  the  destruction  of 
the  body,  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  go  further  than  the 
Gospel  in  the  applying  it.  They  could  have  said  nothing 
which  it  had  not  said,  and  practised  nothing  which  it  at  least 
had  not  suggested.  If,  according  to  the  Gospel,  the  Chris- 
tian is  called  to  nothing  less  than  to  crucify  tlie  flesh,  what 
more  would  these  Christians  have  ?  We  cannot  conceive  it. 
But,  on  quitting  those  limits,  they  have  an  open  field  before 
them.  There  is  neither  end  nor  truce  to  bodily  and  mental 
suffering.  We  may,  according  to  the  degree  of  exaltation 
to  which  we  have  attained,  rise  to  the  horrible,  or,  as  such 
Christians  will  have  it,  to  the  sublime  ;  and  as  perfection  is 
the  common  rule,  it  is  clear  that  if  this  perfection  is  real, 
the  Church  will,  in  its  proper  state,  be  only  an  establishment 
of  tortures  as  unmeasured  as  unmeaning,  a  true  field  of  car- 
nage ;  and  the  infidel   will  for  once  be   entitled  to  reproach 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  157 

the  Christian  with  his  religion  of  blood.  But  what  matters 
it?  In  this  perpetual  and  general  immolation,  a  single  vic- 
tim will  have  been  forgotten ;  the  will  of  the  natural  man, 
self,  alone  will  have  been  spared.  It  alone  will  live  in  the 
midst  of  this  death,  it  alone  will  triumph  in  this  field  of  de- 
struction ;  and  this  great  battle,  waged  apparently  against  it 
alone,  will  have  left  it  alone  unscathed. 

You  will  not  surely  refer  to  the  example  of  your  Master, 
as  giving  his  innocent  flesh  to  his  murderers.  You  will 
leave  this  quibble  to  the  enemies  of  the  Gospel  ;  but  when 
they  say  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  an  enemy  to  life, 
society,  and  nature,  beware  of  giving  them  ground  to  say  it 
by  your  conduct.  They  would  be  wrong,  but  you  would  be 
responsible  ;  it  would  be  you  who  had  fastened  this  deplora- 
ble conclusion  on  the  leading  fact  of  the  Gospel.  Or  would 
you,  in  fact,  reason  thus;  would  you  think  that  because 
Jesus  Christ  left  his  life  in  the  hands  of  the  wicked,  or  be- 
cause Jesus  Christ  sealed  with  his  blood  the  letters  of  pardon 
which  he  came  to  deliver  you,  you  ought,  without  an  object, 
(for  not  having  his,  you  have  none,)  you  ought  to  fill  your 
life  with  idle  privations  and  fruitless  pains  ?  Is  not  this  the 
opposite  of  what  you  ought  to  think  ?  Ought  you  not  to 
consider  that  what  may  apply  to  Jesus  Christ  is  not  applica- 
ble to  you,  and  that  your  task  is  confined  to  these  two  things 
— to  crucify  the  flesh  of  sin,  and  offer  your  body  to  God  a 
holy  and  living  sacrifice ;  in  other  words,  to  devote  them  to 
his  service  for  all  that  the  interest  of  his  kingdom  and  the 
welfare  of  your  brethren  may  demand  ?  This,  says  the 
Apostle,  is  your  reasonable  service  ;  but  beyond  it  is  there 
any  thing  reasonable,  any  thing  evangelical,  any  thing  use- 
ful, any  thing  holy  ?  What  can  you  say  in  favor  of  your 
practices,  unless  you  say  that  you  wish  to  expiate  your  sins  ? 
So  be  it ;  but  if  you  would  expiate  them,  know  that  after  all 
the  sufferings  to  which  your  flesh  may  be  subjected,  you  will 
still  be  far  from  gaining  your  point. 


15®  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

On  seeing  you  multiplying  works  of  supererogation,  one 
is  tempted  to  think  that  you  must  have  got  over  the  field  of 
your  more  immediate  obligations  at  a  rapid  pace.  Will  you 
allow  me  to  say  it  ? — If  you  had  been  careful  not  to  enter 
the  second  field  before  you  had  well  ascertained  the  extent 
of  the  first,  you  would  never  have  entered  it  at  all ;  if  you 
had  known  that  the  first  task  is  infinite,  you  would  never 
have  once  thought  of  a  second.  Now,  rest  assured  that  the 
first  is  infinite.  Ignorance  of  this  is  the  source  of  your 
error,  or  the  cause  of  your  persisting  in  it.  And  if  you  are 
ignorant  of  this,  it  is  because  you  have  not  yet  understood 
this  Gospel  which  you  wish  to  perfect.  Yes,  the  crucifixion 
of  the  flesh  and  its  lusts  (without  adding  to  it  destruction  of 
the  body,  which  is  only  a  suicide,)  is  of  itself  alone  an  infi- 
nite task  ;  and  as  love  only  can  measure  it,  so  love  only 
dares  to  undertake  it.  To  love,  it  is  fair  and  attractive,  and 
of  thrilling  interest ;  for  the  sacrifices  of  which  it  consists 
have  for  their  result  glory  to  God  and  love  to  man.  At  the 
same  time,  it  is  infinite.  If  you  knew  this  you  never  would 
have  gone  farther.  You  would  not  have  been  seen  running 
after  those  painful  refinements,  those  cruel  attempts  at  pre- 
tended perfection,  while  grossly  neglecting  duties  of  which 
you  are  capable,  and  sacrifices  placed  within  your  reach. 
For  it  has  been  observed  a  hundred  times  that  simple  men, 
who  do  not  even  understand  the  technical  terms  of  your 
spirituality,  discharge  their  nearest  and  most  essential  duties 
more  regularly  and  more  completely  than  you  do.  You  can 
do  the  greatest,  and  cannot  do  the  least ;  you  can  fly,  and 
yet  you  cannot  walk  ! 

Who  bids  you  run  so  far  in  search  of  your  cross  ?  It 
stands  at  your  door.  Why  prosecute  the  innocent  when  the 
criminal  is  in  your  power  ?  This  innocent  is  your  body,  this 
criminal  your  flesh,  I  mean  the  old  man  with  all  his  passions. 
Such  is  the  victim  which  is  delivered  to  you,  and  whom  you 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  159 

ought  to  be  always  immolating.  No  one  bids  you  seek  for 
torments.  In  this  you  are  not  following  the  spirit  of  the 
Gospel,  in  which  you  read  that  the  Son  of  man  came  not 
to  destroy  men's  lives  but  to  save  them.  Luke  ix.  56. 
Without  seeking  suffering,  you  will  find  it  the  task  which  is 
laid  upon  you.  To  subdue,  in  a  single  instance,  any  one  of 
your  favorite  passions,  to  eradicate  a  single  darling  habit,  to 
renounce,  from  humility  or  disinterestedness,  the  employment 
of  any  one  of  your  powers,  to  allow  others  to  pass  you  or  to 
intercept  occasions  which  natural  inclination  disposes  you 
eagerly  to  seize ;  in  a  word,  to  trample  upon  sin  in  propor- 
tion as  it  seeks  to  rise,  to  press  vvith  all  your  force  and  all 
your  weight  against  the  doors  which  that  prisoner  is  attempt- 
ing to  force,  to  have  your  eye,  your  arm,  your  mind,  inces- 
santly intent  on  this  sole  end — has  this  single  act,  though 
wholly  negative,  silent,  and  defensive,  has  this  immovable 
energy  of  a  slave  who  grasps  in  his  chains  and,  after  a  long 
struggle,  strangles  a  slave  of  his  own  who  was  incessantly 
revolting, — has  it  any  known  limit  ?  has  it  any  other  end 
than  that  of  life  ?  Your  choice  is  the  best  in  a  natural  point 
of  view.  For,  supposing  that  you  suffer  as  much,  and  even 
more  than  ordinary  Christians,  your  sufferings  are  of  your 
own  choice.  To  suffer  in  this  way  is  to  act ;  and  who  knows 
not  what  secret  enjoyment  there  is  in  action  and  liberty  ? 
Those,  on  the  contrary,  whose  example  I  propose  to  you, 
always  accept  and  never  choose  ;  they  do  not  go  purposely 
to  meet  any  useless  pains,  but  they  submit  to  all  useful 
pains ;  they  never  command,  they  always  obey ;  and  when 
the  world,  which  knows  them  not,  imagines,  on  seeing  their 
struggles,  that  they  seek  suffering,  it  is  mistaken.  No  ;  they 
sought  only  duty,  and  have  found  suffering  in  the  path  of 
duty.  Their  suffering,  then,  is  not  action,  but  suffering 
merely ;  and  how  much  does  this  single  circumstance  raise 
their  sufferings  above  yours  !     Once  more,  do  you  seek  suf- 


160  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

ferings  ?  Try  this  latter  kind.  Do  you  seek  your  cress? 
It  is  at  your  door. 

You  will  tell  me  that  love  transforms  every  thing,  makes 
every  thing  supportable.  I  was  going  to  say  so.  God  forbid 
I  should  see  the  whole  truth  in  the  mournful  picture  which  I 
have  just  drawn  !  God  forbid  I  should  forget  that  the  joy  of 
the  Christian  revives  and  flourishes  again  like  the  palm 
amid  those  waters  of  bitterness  !  Yes,  love  transforms  every 
thing  ;  but  forget  not  that  so  far  from  sparing  a  single  one  of 
those  sacrifices,  it  multiplies  them.  Love  transforms  every 
thing,  it  is  true ;  but  pride  also  transforms  every  thing. 
Think  well  of  this,  and  fear  lest  pride  be  the  true  charm  of 
your  pains.  How  just  this  fear  is  in  regard  to  courted  chosen 
sufferings,  where  self  triumphs  by  annihilating  itself,  and 
dies,  so  to  speak,  only  to  rise  again  more  lovely  and  strong  ! 
Allow  us,  by  a  single  example,  to  explain  our  whole  thought. 
Which  of  the  two,  think  you,  suffers  most  in  his  pride — he 
who  makes  publicly,  particularly,  and  repeatedly,  a  humili- 
ating confession  which  was  not  asked  of  him,  or  he  who, 
aside  and  in  private,  allows  himself  to  be  reproved  by  one 
of  his  equals,  by  one  of  his  inferiors,  one  of  whom  he 
perhaps  thought  himself  the  natural  guide  and  censor  ? 
Which  of  the  two  do  you  think  more  humble — he  who  anti- 
cipates censure  by  inflicting  it  on  himself,  or  he  who  endures 
it  without  anticipating  it  ?  Well,  in  these  two  men  you  have 
the  representation  of  these  two  classes  of  Christians ;  the 
one  accepting  all  trials  but  seeking  none,  and  the  other  seek- 
ing a  thousand  and  a  thousand  trials  but  accepting  none. 
The  former  has  a  just  idea  of  Christian  perfection,  the  latter 
pursues  an  imaginary  perfection  ;  the  one  is  within  the  terms 
of  the  Gospel,  and  the  other  not.  Moreover,  they  have  each 
their  recompense  and  their  consolation  ;  the  one  pride,  the 
other  love.     Omnes  acceperunt  mercedem  suam  :  vani  vanam. 

After  all  that  we  have  said,  may  you  still  expect  (suppos- 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  161 

ing  you  have  not  read  the  Gospel)  to  find  precepts  in  it  en- 
joining this  pretended  and  spurious  mortification  ?  Not  at  all, 
brethren;  and  in  order  that  this  silence  may  not  deceive  you, 
St.  Paul,  so  to  speak,  gives  it  a  voice  and  makes  it  articulate 
in  the  words  preceding  the  text,  when  he  says,  that  such  or- 
dinances (he  means  the  prohibition  of  certain  meats)  are 
founded  only  on  the  doctrines  and  commandments  of  men. 
Nay,  more,  even  if  these  observances  had  a  better  principle, 
St.  Paul  is  not  more  favorable  to  them,  for  he  says  that  they 
perish  in  the  using.  Not  that  he  condemns  certain  abstinences 
which  our  Lord  himself  seems  to  have  authorized,  when 
these  are  used  as  exercises,  or  as  a  means  of  finding  more 
leisure  for  the  duties  of  worship  ;  but  seeing  in  all  selected 
sufferings  a  pretext  for  avoiding  sufferings  enjoined,  and  a 
kind  of  hidden  path  by  which  the  new  man  may  return  to- 
wards the  traditions  of  the  old,  he  rather  warns  us  of 
the  danger,  than  establishes  the  legitimacy  and  advantages 
of  them.  What  Jeremiah,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  had  said 
of  an  idolatrous  worship,  St.  Paul  seems  not  to  hesitate  to 
say  of  this  other  idolatry  :  "  I  commanded  not,  nor  spake  it, 
neither  came  it  into  my  mind."  Jer.  xix.  5.  Paul  was  well 
entitled  to  speak  thus.  It  was  with  him  as  with  the  brave 
soldier  who,  covered  with  honorable  wounds,  may  decline  a 
challenge.  He  might  tell  his  companions  in  arms,  to  reserve 
their  blood  for  the  fields  of  battle  on  which  he  had  bled. 
From  the  bosom  of  a  comfortable  and  indolent  life,  he  might 
not  have  been  able  with  a  good  grace  to  decry  those  pious 
excesses.  He  might  have  been  personally  wrong,  though 
theoretically  right.  But  with  what  authority  were  not  these 
warnings  invested  by  a  life  wholly  consecrated  to  struggles 
against  sin,  and  against  the  world ;  a  life  full  of  sacrifices, 
useful  sacrifices,  a  life  of  fatigue,  of  privation,  of  peril,  of 
opprobrium  and  bitterness,  each  of  which  had  its  reason  and 
object ;  a  perpetual  crucifixion,  not  only  of  the  lusts  of  the 


162  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

old  man,  but  of  the  affections  which  are  not  forbidden  to  the 
new  man ;  a  painful  travail  from  the  world  to  the  Gospel,  a 
daily  death,  an  hourly  cross  !  Ah  !  how  few  since  his  day 
have  treated  the  same  subject  with  the  same  authority  ;  and 
well  may  his  successors  in  the  ministry  have  a  blush  on  their 
foreheads,  when  they  come  like  him  to  protest  against  ex- 
cesses of  which  they  are  only  too  innocent.  Nevertheless  it 
is  necessary  to  do  so  ;  but  it  is  necessary  to  say  to  one's  self, 
and  to  say  to  all,  that  if  a  false  mortification  is  dangerous, 
the  want  of  mortification  is  still  more  so  ;  that  if  temerity  is 
culpable,  still  more  culpable  is  laxity. 

Brethren,  we  have  condemned  the  fantastic  perfection  of 
the  Christian  life,  in  the  principles  on  which  it  is  founded. 
But  it  has  been  careful  by  its  manifestations  to  condemn  it- 
self. Its  works  and  efforts  condemn  it.  The  history  of  the 
different  schools  which  it  has  created  is  intimately  associated 
with  the  most  distressing  trials  and  the  worst  affronts  which 
the  Christian  Church  has  undergone.  Follow  its  destination, 
trace  it  over  a  series  of  ages,  and  see  what  ruins  it  leaves 
behind. 

And  first,  under  the  pretext  of  raising  Christianity  above 
itself,  if  I  may  so  speak,  it  has  always  lowered  and  degraded 
it.  This  behooved  to  be.  As  beyond  all  there  is  nothing,  as 
no  addition  can  be  made  to  what  is  infinite,  it  inevitably  fol- 
lows that  whatever  pretends  to  add  to  the  truth  does  not 
unite  with  it  but  oppose,  does  not  augment  but  diminish  it. 
For  inasmuch  as  the  law  is  complete,  inasmuch  as  God  has 
commanded  all  that  was  worthy  of  himself  and  good  for  man, 
we  may  boldly  conclude  that  whatever  he  has  not  command- 
ed, he  has  forbidden.  If  under  the  old  dispensation,  con- 
demnation fell  equally  on  him  who  took  away  from  the 
commandment  of  God,  and  him  who  added  to  it,  (Deut.  xii. 
32,)  this  was  only  a  sign  and  warning  to  the.  members  of 
the  new  covenant.     The  error  which  we  combat  was  fore- 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  WB 

seen  :  the  same  principle  which  carried  imperfect  obedience  at 
one  of  its  poles,  must  have  carried  at  the  other  fantastic  per- 
fection, or  human  invention.  If  this  perfection  were  not 
according  to  truth,  it  must  be  contrary  to  truth  ;  if  it  added 
nothing  to  true  perfection,  it  could  only  diminish  it ;  if  it  did 
not  complete  Christianity,  it  could  only  mutilate  it.  The 
principle  being  a  principle  of  infidelity,  the  results  behooved 
to  correspond  and  be  similar  to  the  principle,  and  a  false  per- 
fection makes  way  for  too  many  real  imperfections.  And 
this  is  what  has  been  seen.  Christ  has  been  disparaged  in 
all  manners  by  this  infidel  fervor,  disparaged  in  his  nature, 
his  dignity,  his  necessity,  his  purity,  and  holiness.  There  is 
not  one  of  those  schools  which,  by  stretching  certain  cords  to 
excess,  have  not  in  an  equal  degree  slackened  others  which 
ought  to  have  been  kept  stretched.  There  is  not  one  of 
those  schools  whose  progress  has  not  been  marked  by  the 
destruction  or  weakening  of  some  one  of  the  fundamental 
truths  of  religion  or  morality.  So  that  were  it  true  that  the 
partisans  of  these  schools  had,  in  so  far  as  they  are  person- 
ally concerned,  found  in  their  ideal  perfection  the  true  per- 
fection of  Christianity,  yet  as  a  smaller  circle  is  contained 
within  a  greater,  and  as  less  is  contained  in  more,  (we  do 
not  admit  that  this  applies  to  them,)  so  it  is  true  that  the  su- 
perfluity thus  enjoyed  by  them,  would  have  deprived  the 
multitude  of  their  necessary  subsistence,  that  their  luxury, 
like  that  of  avaricious  despots,  would  have  been  the  result  of 
public  misery.  For  if  it  is  not  possible  for  them  to  carry  up 
the  people  to  their  sublime  heights,  it  is  only  too  possible  to 
make  the  people  embrace  errors  which  are  as  much  akin  to 
laxity  as  to  elevation  ;  it  is  but  too  easy  for  them  to  accredit 
heresies  which,  appearing  compatible  with  the  highest  degree 
of  fervor,  are  still  more  compatible  with  the  avowed  medio- 
crity to  which  the  great  body  of  Christians  are  reduced. 
Yes,  those  enervating,  stupefying,  nauseating  errors,  which 


164  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

gradually  bring  down  Christianity  to  the  level  of  worldly  mo- 
rality, are,  whatever  may  seem  to  the  contrary,  the  errors 
which  have  been  propagated  by  these  wrong-headed,  fervent 
enthusiasts.  Advantage  has  been  taken  of  their  zeal  to  em- 
brace convenient  errors,  while  their  zeal  itself,  well  or  ill 
understood,  has  been  allowed  to  remain  with  them.  The  art 
has  been  discovered  of  extracting  lax  doctrines  from  their 
devotion.  The  poisonous  fruit  has  been  appropriated,  but  its 
outer  covering  has  been  thrown  away. 

And  it  is  not  merely  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  that  these 
sectaries  have  altered  ;  they  have  done  violence  to  truths 
which,  though  not  taught  verhatim  in  the  Gospel,  are  not  less 
sacred,  because  the  Gospel  presupposes  them,  in  the  same 
way  as  in  a  house  the  foundation  is  not  seen  just  because  it 
is  the  foundation,  and  gives  support  to  the  whole.  These 
first  affections,  these  eternal  instincts  of  nature,  without 
which  life  is  not  human  life,  and  man  not  man,  and  which, 
in  indulgence  to  our  weakness,  if  we  may  so  speak,  portion 
out  the  invisible  scale  by  which  our  soul  rises  to  its 
supreme  object  into  spaces  of  moderate  dimensions, — these 
affections,  these  instincts  they  have  denied,  and,  as  much  as 
in  them  lay,  have  destroyed.  That  in  this  way  immense 
damage  has  been  done  to  religion,  considered  in  itself,  is  a 
fact  which  cannot  be  doubted  by  true  philosophers,  who 
have  at  all  times  recognized  two  truths  of  equal  importance, 
the  one  that  the  Gospel  and  the  Gospel  alone  brings  us  back 
to  nature,  and  the  other  that  the  Gospel  deals  with  actual 
complete  men,  not  with  phantoms  under  the  name  of  men — 
that  it  is  impossible  to  be  truly  a  Christian  without  being 
truly  a  man — and  that  faith  produces  real  and  good  fruits 
only  in  souls  unsophistically  human.  No  service  therefore 
is  done  to  Christianity  by  denying  man  or  a  part  of  his 
nature,  as  these  theological  systems  do  ;  for  this  is  to  make 
a  change  in  his  essence,    and  moreover   to  degrade   him. 


IMAGINARY    PERFECTION.  165 

The  world,  brethren,  is  only  too  much  indisposed  to  receive 
the  Gospel  in  its  simplicity,  but  still  when  it  is  exhibited 
to  them  as  it  really  is,  they  cannot  help  perceiving  and 
acknowledging  its  beauty  and  excellence,  in  other  words, 
involuntarily  admitting  that  it  is  true.  How  culpable  or 
how  unfortunate  then  are  those  whose  arbitrary  inventions 
mar  this  distinct  feature,  and  who,  by  disfiguring  the  truth, 
furnish  its  enemies  with  a  means  of  mistaking,  and  a  pre- 
text for  denying  it !  Will  it  not  be  dreadful  one  day  for 
each  individual,  when  his  eyes  are  opened,  to  be  obliged  to 
say  to  himself,  "  By  reason  "  of  me  "  the  way  of  truth  " 
was  "evil  spoken  of?"  2  Pet.  ii.  2.  By  covering  it  up 
either  with  briers  or  flowers,  I  hid  it ;  and  men,  no  longer 
discerning  it,  pretended  that  it  did  not  exist.  Because  the 
enemy  could  say  as  he  pointed  to  the  phantom  of  my  im- 
agination, Behold  the  Gospel !  how  many  simple  souls  have 
been  turned  aside  from  the  Gospel,  and  after  a  longer  or 
shorter  time  have  finally  pined  away,  and  perished  far 
from  this  stream  of  living  water  !  Is  not  this  a  most  deplor- 
able result  of  my  rashness  and  presumption,  and  though 
I  find  in  the  heart  of  God  mercy  enough  to  wipe  away 
my  fault,  how  shall  1  find  in  my  eyes  tears  enough  to  weep 
for  it ! 

In  fine,  brethren,  we  must  say  that  these  systems  of  ar- 
bitrary perfection  have  spoken  loudly  against  themselves  by 
the  lapses  of  their  followers.  St.  James  says,  "  In  many 
things  we  ofiend  all ;"  (James  iii.  2  ;)  every  being  does,  even 
the  Christian  ;  for,  until  the  end  of  his  days  he  travels  in 
company  with  the  enemy ;  and  were  the  moral  infallibility 
of  those  who  profess  a  doctrine  an  indispensable  mark  of  its 
truth,  Christianity  itself  would  not  be  true.  But  it  is  with 
eternal  truth  as  with  eternal  necessity,  pride  goes  before  de- 
struction, and  the  higher  a  man  exalts  himself,  the  more  will 
he  be  abased.     Let  the   height  to  which  these  rash  spirits 


166  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

rise,  be  the  measure  by  which  you  anticipate  the  depth  of 
their  fall.  The  worldling  may  fall  as  low,  but  the  height 
being  less,  he  is  not  so  completely  shattered,  and  his  bruises 
may  be  cured.  The  Christian  who,  as  St.  Paul  expresses 
it,  wishes  not  to  "  think  of  himself  more  highly  than  he 
ought  to  think,"  (Rom.  xii.  3,)  rather  sinks  than  falls,  and 
has  not  reached  the  ground  when  his  Father's  hand  lifts  him 
up.  But  it  is  not  so  with  him  who,  persisting  in  making 
perfection  perfect,  and  interrogating  his  Creator,  dares  to  ask, 
"  What  makest  thou  ?  He  hath  no  hands  :"  with  him  "  that 
saith  unto  his  Father,  What  begettest  thou  ?  or  to  the  woman, 
What  hast  thou  brought  forth  ?"  Isa.  xlv.  9,  10.  It  has 
been  maintained,  not  without  good  cause,  that  the  spirit  of 
evil  takes  up  his  abode  most  readily  with  the  lover  of  the 
extraordinary  in  religion  ;  and  the  wicked  spirit  which  had 
gone  out,  returns  with  seven  other  spirits  more  wicked  than 
himself  into  a  house  thus  richly  furnished.  Mattliew  xii. 
44,  45.  None  have  ever  produced  more  deplorable  scan- 
dals in  the  Church  than  those  fantastic,  heady  spirits ;  no 
road  ever  led  to  a  more  profound  abyss.  This,  dear  brethren, 
is  so  true,  that  the  dignity  of  this  place,  and  the  pulpit,  abso- 
lutely prevents  us  from  giving  full  proof  of  the  assertion, 
proof  as  overwhelming  as  it  is  disgraceful.  What  a  power- 
ful motive  to  value  and  respect  the  Apostle's  recommenda- 
tion, "  Mind  not  high  things,  but  condescend  to  men  of  low 
estate  !"     Rom.  xii.  16. 

In  order  to  escape  the  perils  of  a  false  elevation,  as  well 
as  answer  to  the  designs  and  gifts  of  your  Creator,  to  avoid 
falling  either  into  the  snares  of  the  flesh  or  the  snares  of 
pride,  aspire  to  things  higher  than  all  those  to  which  the 
world  or  sectarians  unjustly  give  the  name  of  high  things. 
Neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  but  upward !  upward  ! 
I  mean,  in  the  practice  of  all  the  duties  which  God  has  given 
you  to  fulfil.     Upward  !  in  simple  love  to  him  who  has  loved 


IMAGINARY   PERFECTION.  167 

you,  diligently  seeking  his  glory  while  despising  your  own. 
Upward  !  in  the  exactness,  not  the  scrupulous  and  legal,  but 
the  tender  and  zealous  exactness  of  Christian  obedience,  in 
humility  truly  humble,  and  that  childlike  simplicity  which 
accords,  so  admirably  accords,  with  enlightened  reason  in 
the  intelligent  but  docile  acceptance  of  the  gifts  which  God 
has  given,  and  the  truths  which  he  has  taught  you.  Do  not 
seek  a  mean  between  two  extremes  in  discriminating  truth 
from  error,  but  raise  yourself  to  a  height  from  which  you  no 
longer  perceive  any  middle,  any  intervening  space  between 
two  errors,  which  thus  become,  in  your  eyes,  only  one  error, 
or  one  sin  under  two  forms.  Look  down  upon  both  from  the 
high  vantage-ground  of  Christian  simplicity.  And  first,  ask 
of  God  that  invaluable  simplicity  from  which  some  are  so 
remote,  and  others  are  kept  away  by  so  many  conspiring 
causes.  O,  how  beautiful !  O,  how  rare  and  difficult  this 
simplicity  !  O,  how  difficult  it  must  in  fact  be,  since  it  is 
nothing  else  than  faithfulness,  nothing  else  than  faith.  O 
how  we  ought  to  ask  and  continue  asking  it  of  God,  in  order 
that  at  last,  as  regards  both  Him  and  ourselves,  we  may 
have  no  thoughts  but  his  thoughts !  May  we  at  least  have 
the  simplicity  to  ask,  since  it  has  been  so  solemnly  promised, 
that  he  who  asks  shall  receive,  and  he  who  seeks  shall  find  ! 


THE  STONES  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 


"  As  for  these  things  which  ye  behold,"  or  (according  to  the  French 
translation,)  "  Is  it  this  you  are  looking  at  ?" — Luke  xxi.  6. 

These  words  contain  a  reproof,  a  reproof  which,  from 
having  no  bitterness  in  it,  thereby  becomes  only  the  more 
serious  and  impressive.  The  disciples  had  gone  with  Jesus 
Christ  into  the  temple,  where,  struck  with  the  splendor  and 
magnificence  of  the  edifice,  which  however  was  no  novelty 
to  them,  instead  of  being  contented  with  silent  admiration, 
addressed  their  Master  and  called  upon  him  to  join  in  their 
admiration  by  exclaiming.  What  stones!  What  buildings! 
Jesus  merely  replies,  "  Is  it  this  you  are  looking  at  ?"  the 
day  will  come  when  it  will  be  thrown  down,  and  not  one 
stone  will  be  left  upon  another. 

Were  any  one  of  you  tempted  to  make  an  excuse  for  the 
disciples,  he  might  say  :  If  those  who  built  this  temple,  and 
adorned  it  with  beautiful  stones  and  ornaments  were  not  to 
blame,  no  more  were  the  disciples  to  blame  for  admiring 
their  work.  The  first  point  is  to  determine  if  it  was  proper 
that  such   an   edifice  should  be  beautiful ;   but,  if  so,  it  is 


THE    STONES    OF    THE    TEMPLE.  169 

certain  that  beauty  is  designed  to  be  felt.  It  is  a  natural 
impression  which,  to  those  who  are  properly  organized,  is 
irresistible;  and  the  builders  of  this  edifice  had  neglected 
nothing  by  which  the  eye,  on  entering  the  threshold  of  this 
sanctuary,  might  be  at  once  surprised  and  delighted.  We 
might  also  be  reminded  that  this  temple,  built  by  Herod  on 
the  site  of  that  of  Zerubbabel,  in  grandeur  if  not  in  mao-ni- 
ficence  and  glory  surpassed  the  second,  and  even  the  first 
temple.  We  might  be  called  to  view  it  from  the  highest  of 
three  terraces  connected  with  each  other  by  magnificent 
steps,  and  formed  into  courts  by  a  double  and  treble  row  of 
pillars.  We  might  be  shown  above  those  peristyles  rising 
one  over  the  other  a  last  peristyle,  which  was  properly  the 
court  of  the  sanctuary.  Beyond  this  last  forest  of  pillars  we 
might  be  introduced  into  the  temple  itself,  whose  walls,  a 
hundred  cubits  high,  and  broad  in  proportion,  were  through- 
out covered  with  precious  marble,  and  shining  with  the  lustre 
of  pure  gold.  We  might  be  made  to  traverse  in  thought 
those  lateral  buildings,  those  vast  courts,  raising  their  treble 
stories  around  the  sacred  inclosure,  and  arranged  like  the 
first  temple,  but  in  enlarged  proportions,  the  better  to  dis- 
guise, shall  I  say,  or  to  render  more  impressive  the  desola- 
tion of  the  holy  of  holies,  now  absolutely  naked  and  empty, 
and  no  longer  mysterious.  How  could  such  grandeur,  such 
lustre,  the  mere  description  of  which  stirs  our  imagination, 
fail  to  produce  an  effect  on  the  imagination  of  the  disciples, 
and  shall  we  not  excuse  them  when  they  exclaim,  Master, 
what  stones  !  what  buildings  !  what  magnificence  ! 

Is  there  any  one  Christian,  however  austere,  who,  on 
entering  the  body  of  our  cathedral,  not  for  the  first  time  but 
the  twentieth,  and  allowing  his  eye  to  wander  along  its 
avenue  of  columns,  or  into  the  depth  at  once  so  mysterious, 
and  so  impressive  of  the  distant  choir;  or  towards  those 
arches,  at  once  light  and  bold^  which,  like  a  vigorous  vege- 
9 


170  GOSPEL    ST[JDIES. 

tation  on  each  pilaster,  throw  out  and  intertwine  their  stems 
at  the  centre — is  there  any  one  who  has  not  said  to  himself, 
How  beautiful  this  is !  what  harmony  !  what  unison  among 
all  these  stones !  what  music  in  this  architecture !  what 
poetry  in  this  edifice  !  Those  who  reared  it  are  dead,  but 
though  dead  they  still  speak  to  us ;  and  their  conception,  full 
of  adoration,  their  conception,  a  species  of  prayer,  is  so  united 
to  their  work,  that  we  think  we  feel  it  and  breathe  it  as  we 
advance  within  these  walls,  which  carry  us  over  a  vista  of 
ages.  Such  is  our  feeling  ;  and  if  we  are  not  alone,  we  can 
scarcely  help  giving  it  utterance.  Thus,  doing  what  the 
disciples  did  when  they  exclaimed,  What  stones!  what 
buildings!  might  we  not  hear  ourselves  addressed  by  our 
Lord  in  words  of  reproof,  "  Is  it  this  you  are  looking  at  ?" 

And  why  should  we  not  be  reproved  if  our  soul  goes  no 
farther  than  our  eye,  if  it  stops  where  our  eye  is  obliged  to 
stop ;  if  symbols,  appearances,  visible  things,  hold  it  captive  ; 
if  the  splendors  of  art  chain  down  our  heart  to  the  earth  in- 
stead of  raising  it  to  heaven  ?  This  is  the  censure  which 
Jesus  Christ  passes  on  his  disciples.  He  had  looked  into 
their  souls,  and  there  detected  that  lust  of  the  flesh,  that  lust 
of  the  eye,  and  that  pride  of  life,  which  are  the  three  con- 
necting chains  by  which  the  enemy  of  God  links  us  closely 
to  outer  darkness.  The  man  and  the  Jew  were  equally  re- 
vealed by  that  involuntary  exclamation ;  man,  dazzled  by 
whatever  is  seen,  and  filled  with  contempt  for  what  is  not 
seen ;  the  Jew,  proud  of  the  exterior  pomp  of  a  worship,  the 
deep  meaning  and  internal  idea  of  which  had  long  escaped 
him,  and  attaching  himself  obstinately  to  the  law — in  other 
words,  a  shadow,  at  the  very  moment  when  this  law  was 
more  than  ever  a  shadow.  Is  it  this  you  are  looking  at  ? 
What !  these  few  grains  of  dust,  which  are  large  only  be- 
cause you  are  little  ?  What !  these  gifts  extorted  by  fear, 
vanity,  and  custom,  from  individuals  who  refused  to  begin 


THE    STONES    OF    THE    TEMPLE.  171 

by  giving  themselves  to  God  ?  What !  the  gorgeous  false- 
hood of  these  marbles  and  gildings,  of  all  those  ornaments, 
the  pious  import  of  which  has  long  since  been  forgotten  ? 
Is  it  this  you  are  looking  at  ? 

Besides,  a  circumstance  to  which  T  scarcely  require  to 
call  your  attention,  gave  a  special  seasonableness  to  our 
Lord's  reproof  He  also,  on  coming  out  of  the  temple,  had 
looked  at  something,  and  mentioned  it  to  his  disciples,  who 
otherwise  would  have  given  no  heed  to  it.  What  was  it  that 
attracted  the  eye  and  fixed  the  attention  of  our  Master  ?  It 
was  a  poor  woman  putting  her  mite  into  the  alms-box  :  in 
other  words,  giving  of  her  necessity  to  relieve  the  necessi- 
tous. Jesus  Christ  had  called  the  attention  of  his  disciples 
to  this  act  of  liberality — a  liberality  greater  in  his  estimation 
than  the  most  abundant  donations  of  the  rich.  It  was  when 
he  had  brought  under  their  view  this  touching  example  of 
charity,  and  when  by  an  expression  as  simple  as  striking  he 
had  opened  this  fine  subject  for  meditation  ;  it  was  then,  as 
if  to  answer  one  observation  by  another,  that  the  disciples 
invite  their  Master  to  join  them  in  admiring  the  magnificence 
of  the  temple.  It  was  as  if  they  meant  to  say,  That  is  what 
you  judged  worthy  of  your  attention,  and  this  is  what  we 
judge  worthy  of  ours.  You  looked  at  a  simple  individual 
making  a  sacrifice,  we  are  looking  at  buildings.  Moral 
grandeur  and  beauty  are  the  spectacle  which  you  love ; 
material  grandeur  and  beauty  the  spectacle  which  pleases  us. 
A  single  act  of  this  worship,  which  you  have  called  worship 
in  Spirit  and  in  truth,  withdraws  you  from  the  splendor  of  the 
external  worship  performed  within  these  precincts,  while  this 
visible  splendor  carries  our  eye  far  away  from  the  worship 
in  Spirit  and  in  truth,  which  alone  our  Father  honors.  And 
not  only  does  our  instinct  lead  us  in  a  different  direction 
from  you,  but  even  your  admonition  does  not  bring  us  back. 
You  have  told  us  what  ought  to  be  admired,  and  we  answer, 
this  is  what  we  admire. 


172  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

To  these  words,  or  at  least  to  these  thoughts,  Jesus 
replied,  "  Is  it  this  you  are  looking  at  ?"  Might  he  not  have 
added  something  more  ?  Had  he  deemed  it  proper,  on  how 
many  grounds  might  he  not  have  rebuked  both  the  inattention 
and  prejudice  of  the  disciples  ?  But  our  Lord  was  sparing 
of  words,  and  did  not  argue.  Usually  one  word,  one  reason 
for  all,  sufficed  him,  but  it  was  a  peremptory,  decisive  word, 
reaching,  as  has  been  said  of  the  Divine  word  in  general,  to 
the  last  division  of  the  soul  and  spirit,  the  joints  and  marrow. 
He  makes  only  one  observation,  and  it  is  this :  "  The  days 
will  come  when  there  will  not  be  left  one  stone  upon  another 
which  shall  not  be  thrown  down." 

He  is  obviously  speaking  of  an  instantaneous,  violent, 
forcible  destruction,  and  not  that  which  years  and  ages  insen- 
sibly accomplish.  This  destruction  is  to  be  the  work  of  an 
enemy  more  impatient  than  time  ;  and  as  no  person  can 
imagine  that  this  temple  is  to  be  demolished  by  the  people 
who  reared  it,  who  glory  in  it,  and  regard  it  as  the  centre  of 
their  nationality,  he  must  be  speaking  of  another  people,  of 
an  invasion,  a  conquest.  This  single  expression  thus  opens 
to  the  minds  of  the  disciples  a  perspective  of  disgrace,  ruin, 
and  desolation.  This  expression  perhaps  contains  a  predic- 
tion of  the  total  extermination  of  the  Jewish  people  and 
Jewish  name.  The  Divine  prophet  is  silent  only  on  one 
point :  he  does  not  say  when  these  things  will  happen. 
"  The  days  will  come,"  says  he,  but  soon  after  giving  full 
scope  to  the  prophecy  which  is  thrilling  in  his  breast,  he 
clearly  reveals  to  their  agonized  hearts  that  the  period  is  not 
distant,  that  they  are  personally  interested  in  it,  and  that  this 
temple,  though  still  recent  among  monuments,  having  been 
built  within  fifty  years,  will  not  see  fifty  more. 

But  though  the  destruction  of  the  temple  should  not  imply 
the  ruin  of  the  country  and  extermination  of  the  people,  and 
though  nothing  of  all  this  might  be  imminent,  the  reply  of 


THE    STONES    OF    THE    TEMPLE.  173 

Jesus  would  not  be  the  less  full  of  meaning  and  force.  Let 
us  admit  that  the  destruction  of  the  temple  was  to  be  the 
slow  and  silent  work  of  years,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  in 
mentioning  to  his  hearers  a  circumstance  which  they  already 
knew  too  well,  namely,  that  one  day  not  a  stone  of  this  mag- 
nificent edifice  will  remain  upon  another,  our  Lord  fully 
justifies  his  equally  grave  and  mild  reproof,  "  Is  it  this  you 
are  looking  at  ?" 

An  admirable  and  most  comprehensive  argument !  Truth 
and  eternity  are  inseparable,  and  so  are  error  and  frailty. 
Whatever  is  true,  is  eternal ;  whatever  is  not  eternal,  has 
only  a  semblance  and  a  name.  God  has  made  all  that  ap- 
pears out  of  that  which  appeared  not.  Spirit,  of  which  God 
is  the  centre,  existed  before  matter,  without  matter ;  matter 
existed  only  to  serve  as  an  instrument  to  the  created  spirit, 
as  a  form  to  its  life,  an  object  to  its  activity.  But  it  has  no 
intrinsic  absolute  value ;  it  derives  all  that  it  has  from  its 
end,  and  employment.  The  spirit  alone,  offspring  of  God, 
like  to  God,  capable  of  uniting  itself  to  God,  the  spirit  alone 
is  immortal,  because  worthy  of  being  so.  A  single  spirit  is 
worth  whole  worlds  :  or  rather  all  worlds,  actual  and  possi- 
ble, cannot  be  compared  or  measured  with  a  single  spirit. 
The  spirit  alone  deserves  of  itself  the  chief  attention  of  man, 
because  it  has  obtained  the  chief  attention  of  God,  and  inas- 
much as  the  spirit  and  all  which  pertains  to  it  is  invisible,  it 
may  be  said  with  truth,  that  invisible  things  only  deserve  to 
be  looked  at,  and  that  in  a  certain  sense  we  should  be  blind 
to  every  thing  else. 

And  this  is  the  reason  why  this  widow's  mite,  which  had 
noiselessly  dropped  into  the  alms-box,  deserved  more  attention 
than  the  stones  and  ornaments  of  the  temple.  It  was  not  a 
mite,  but  an  invisible  act  of  the  mind  which  the  alms  had 
made  visible.  There  was  something  great  in  this  action, 
greater  than  the  temple,   with  its  stairs,  its  peristyles,  its 


174  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

arches,  and  colossal  walls.  And  indeed  all  comparison  is 
injurious.  The  disciples  may  if  they  please  compare  the 
idea  which  raised  the  temple,  with  that  which  made  the  mite 
drop  from  the  widow's  hand.  But  this  is  far  from  their 
thoughts,  and  though  they  were  to  do  so,  we  would  admit  the 
comparison  only  as  a  means  of  exalting  the  widow's  con- 
duct ;  for  between  the  luxurious  prince,  who  built  this  house 
out  of  the  superabundance  of  his  treasure,  or  the  sweat  of 
his  subjects  slowly  transformed  into  gold,  and  this  poor 
woman,  stealthily  throwing  in  the  treasury  a  tribute  levied 
from  her  misery,  "  her  whole  living,"  says  our  Saviour,  what 
a  difference  !  How  great  the  poor  woman  !  how  little  the 
monarch  ! 

That  in  the  soul  of  each  individual  must  be  sought  the 
proper  measure  and  true  name  of  each  of  his  actions,  or  in 
other  words,  that  the  acts  of  the  soul  are  the  true  actions,  is 
one  of  those  ideas  towards  which  the  dominion  of  sensible 
objects  makes  it  difficult  for  us  to  climb,  and  to  which,  how- 
ever, we  must  rise,  if  we  would  see  God  and  truth  from  the 
proper  point  of  view.  We  confine  the  name  of  action  ex- 
clusively to  every  employment  which  makes  use  of  our  cor- 
poreal powers  in  order  to  effect  some  change  without  us,  and 
we  give  the  name,  not  of  actions,  but  thoughts,  feelings,  de- 
sires, to  what  takes  place  in  our  souls,  or  rather  to  what  our 
soul  does  without  the  concurrence  of  our  corporeal  faculties, 
and  without  any  change  in  the  external  world  ;  so  that  when 
we  have  had  some  well-defined  intention,  and  obstacles 
wholly  independent  of  our  will  have  hindered  us  from  real- 
izing it,  we  do  not  think  that  we  have  acted.  And  yet  not 
only  are  these  intentions  actions,  (this  is  proved  by  the  re- 
morse we  feel  when  they  are  bad,)  but  they  are  even  real 
actions.  Our  external  acts  are  only  the  evidence  and  exter- 
nal manifestation  of  them,  and  are  in  the  eye  of  the  Judge 
of  hearts,  to  whom  external  changes  are  of  little  moment, 


THE    STONES   OF   THE    TEMPLE.  175 

only  gestures  more  or  less  expressive.  It  is  not  for  what  we 
will  have  done  (taking  the  word  in  its  literal  meaning)  that 
we  shall  be  judged,  but  for  what  we  have  wished,  in  other 
words,  done  internally,  that  is,  for  the  actions  of  our  soul. 
It  is  not  said  that  we  shall  receive  according  to  what  we  have 
done  with  our  body,  but  according  to  what  we  shall  have 
done  being  in  the  body.  Our  external  actions  will  then  ap- 
pear as  symbols,  or  evidences.  It  will  not  be  equally  the 
same  whether  we  have  done  or  not  done  any  particular  act. 
For,  in  the  first  place,  it  will  prove  whether  we  have  with- 
held such  an  act,  and  in  the  second  place,  these  actions 
originating  within  will  have  reacted  for  good  or  evil  on  our 
inner  being ;  for  good  if  they  were  good,  and  for  evil  if  they 
were  evil.  But  in  every  case  it  is  the  internal  action  which 
will  be  judged,  the  heart  which  will  be  sifted.  Otherwise  it 
would  be  necessary  to  admit,  that  he  who,  while  retaining 
his  internal  faculties,  had  been  deprived  of  all  means  of  ac- 
tion, would  not  be  liable  to  be  judged,  and  that  where  one 
should  not  have  done  all  the  good  or  evil  which  he  really 
wished  to  do,  neither  this  good  nor  evil  will  be  placed  to  his 
account ;  a  supposition  which  goes  no  less  a  length  than  to 
abolish  all  responsibility,  and  annihilate  all  morality.  Man 
judges  the  outward,  God  judges  the  inward  act ;  and  this  is 
ordinarily  expressed  by  saying  that  God  judges  the  heart,  or 
looks  at  the  heart.  And  do  not  we  poor  creatures  look  into 
it  as  far  as  we  can  ?  Has  it  not  happened  to  us  a  hundred 
times  to  correct  in  ourselves  the  judgments  of  a  criminal 
court,  by  deciding  internally,  that  an  individual  convicted  of 
a  grave  crime,  is  really  less  guilty,  considering  the  state  of 
his  will,  than  another  convicted  of  a  trivial  delinquency  ? 
Hence,  while  continuing  to  give  the  name  of  action  to  that 
to  which  the  world  gives  the  name,  and  to  distinguish  in  or- 
dinary language  between  action  and  thought,  we  are  author- 
ized to  say,  that  essentially  our  voluntary  thoughts  are  our 
true  actions,  and  that  our  actions  are  only  symbols. 


176  -        GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

Let  us  dwell  on  this  idea.  Whatever  is  external,  visible, 
material,  is  only  a  symbol ;  there  is  no  true  action,  except 
in  mental  acts ;  the  mind  alone  performs  true  actions,  and 
the  changes  which  it  produces  without  in  the  world  of  sense, 
only  serve  to  express  it.  These  also,  1  admit,  are  actions, 
but  they  are  purely  symbolical  actions,  signs  of  what  we 
feel  and  what  we  will,  or  also  means  of  exerting  our  inner 
man  ;  and  herein  lies  their  importance.  What  we  say  of 
our  actions  must  be  said  of  our  productions.  They  do  not 
make  us  what  we  are,  they  merely  express  it ;  they  testify 
it  to  others  and  to  ourselves.  Here  their  importance  stops  ; 
but  in  order  that  we  may  not  confound  the  symbol  with  the 
reality,  the  sign  with  the  thing  signified,  time  successively 
destroys  all  these  symbols,  and  whatever  they  may  have  ex- 
pressed. None  is  spared  ;  matter  follows  the  laws  of  matter, 
dust  returns  to  dust.  And  this  body  which  is  not  ourselves, 
but  our  form  only,  this  body  which  is  to  us  the  first  part  of 
the  world  of  phenomena,  the  first  object  as  it  is  the  first  in- 
strument of  our  external  action,  this  body  changes,  perishes, 
gives  way,  and  reminds  us  every  moment  by  this  continuous 
decay,  this  incessant  death,  that  it  has  in  our  existence  only 
a  subordinate  rank  and  relative  importance. 

Far  from  us  be  the  extravagant  dreams  of  those  who 
have  called  the  existence  of  matter  and  the  reality  of  the  ex- 
ternal world  into  doubt ;  far  be  it  from  us  to  treat  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  universe  as  mere  illusion.  Still  there  is  in 
the  conscience  of  man  something  which  constrains  him  to 
unite  the  idea  of  being  indissolubly  with  that  of  immortality  ; 
"  what  must  end,"  said  a  great  orator,  "  has  scarcely  ceased 
to  be  nothing."  In  what  way,  by  what  title  does  any  thing 
exist,  that  is  not  to  exist  always  ?  Is  Scripture  mistaken 
when  it  says,  that  "  man  walketh  in  a  vain  show,"  and  are 
your  preachers  in  like  manner  mistaken  when  directing  your 
eye  toward  the  invisible  world,  they  urge  you  to  fix  it  on  the 
only  realities  ? 


THE  STONES  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  177 

No,  let  US  say  it  boldly :  In  the  religious  acceptation  of 
the  term,  nothing  is  real  that  is  not  eternal.  All  that  we  see 
perish  and  crumble  around  us  and  near  us,  (and  our  body  is 
one  of  the  things  which  are  near  us,)  was  not  absolutely 
nothing  since  even  a  shadow  is  something,  though  after  all 
only  a  shadow  ;  all  this  was  not  absolutely  nothing  since  a 
symbol  is  something,  though  still  only  a  symbol.  God  would 
not  have  us  to  be  deceived,  and  therefore  the  law  of  change 
silently  consumes  or  at  once  openly  destroys  all  these  sym- 
bols. The  holiest  perish  in  their  turn  ;  that  temple  whose 
magnitude  and  splendor  the  disciples  admired,  that  temple 
behooved  to  perish ;  an  avenging  dispensation  only  accele- 
rated the  inevitable  catastrophe.  And  how  should  this 
temple,  reared  by  the  hand  of  man,  not  have  perished,  seeing 
that  God  destines  desolation  to  the  temple  which  he  himself 
has  built  ? 

The  universe  is  the  first,  the  holiest,  the  most  magnifi- 
cent of  temples.  To  call  it  so,  is  to  give  it  its  name,  is  to 
give  a  reason  of  its  existence.  For  if  the  universe  is  not 
a  temple,  what  is  it,  I  ask  ?  Now  this  temple,  of  which  God 
himself  is  the  founder  and  architect,  must  perish.  God  has 
said  it.  Profaned  as  it  is,  how  does  it  still  subsist  ?  Might 
not  he  who,  like  a  new  Samson,  (but  with  all  the  holiness 
which  Samson  had  not,)  fell  into  the  cruel  hands  of  the 
enemies  of  the  people  of  God — might  not  he  with  his  mighty 
arm  have  shaken  the  pillars  of  this  vast  edifice,  and  perished 
only  under  the  ruins  of  the  universe  ?  This  he  did  not. 
After  passing  symptoms  of  destruction,  destined  to  give  note 
of  warning  that  the  earth  itself  with  all  its  inhabitants  subsists 
only  by  mercy,  the  earth  and  the  heavens,  reassured,  have 
continued  to  see  an  uninterrupted  series  of  day  succeeding 
night,  and  night  day,  the  sea  ebbing  and  flowing  under  the 
gravitation  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  these  again  perform- 
ing their  wonted  orbits  in  the  heavens.  But  the  sentence  is 
9* 


178  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

only  delayed.  The  earth,  like  an  unfortunate  ship  burnt  in 
the  open  sea,  must,  in  the  course  of  its  boundless  voyage 
disappear  in  flame  and  tempest,  become  itself  dust  and  ashes 
after  having  ingulfed  so  much  dust  and  ashes,  and  subsist 
only  as  an  eternal  and  melancholy  recollection  in  the  me- 
mory of  the  celestial  intelligences  who  were  present  at  its 
birth  and  are  to  see  its  death.  What  do  I  say  ?  This 
temple  itself,  with  its  movable  architecture,  amid  which  the 
earth  occupies  so  small  a  spot,  must  sink  into  an  ocean  of 
fire  in  order  that  the  catastrophe,  by  its  easy  and  sudden 
accomplishment,  miay  establish  in  all  created  minds  this 
eternal  principle  of  the  Divine  government — matter  is  made 
for  mind,  and  mind  for  truth  and  God. 

Thus,  of  this  temple  likewise,  not  one  stone  shall  remain 
upon  another.  "  Is  this  then  what  you  are  looking  at  ?  " 
But,  in  fact,  if  we  should  not  look  at  what  is  to  perish, 
should  we  look  at  this  world  more  than  any  other  thing  ? 

Patient  inquirers  into  the  mysteries  of  nature,  do  we 
mean  to  condemn  you  ?  No,  certainly ;  if  it  is  the  Spirit 
that  you  are  seeking  in  matter  ;  if  across  the  visible,  it  is  to 
the  invisible,  and  in  this  world  to  the  world's  Author  that 
you  look.  But,  if  it  is  not  so,  Jesus  Christ  says  to  you  as  to 
the  disciples,  "  Is  it  this  you  are  looking  at  ?  "  I  admit  that 
your  admiration  is  more  rational,  and  your  curiosity  more 
learned,  but  what  avails  it  if  your  curiosity  stops  by  the  way, 
and  your  admiration  mistakes  its  object  ?  I  am  willing  that 
you  should  look ;  but  it  should  be  from  above  and  not  from 
below.  All  that  is  not  seen  in  God  is  seen  ill,  or  to  no 
purpose.  What  do  you  admire  in  all  these  wonders  if  you 
admire  not  an  idea,  and  consequently  an  idea  of  God  ? 
Explain  yourself:  leave  us  not  in  doubt  as  to  the  accuracy 
of  your  meaning.  Till  then  we  will  continue  to  ask,  "  Is  it 
this  you  are  looking  at  ?  "  A  funeral  pile,  a  mysterious 
tomb,    are  ready  to  ingulf  the  world  of  astronomers,    the 


THE  STONES  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  179 

world  of  naturalists,  the  world  of  geologists.  In  the  abode 
of  reality,  at  the  sources  of  being,  there  will  no  longer  be 
any  question  as  to  changing  phenomena ;  every  thing  will 
have  been  consumed  save  the  mind  which  gave  them  birth 
and  dictated  their  laws.  If  this  mind  has  not  been  the  object 
of  your  regard,  what  have  you  looked  at? 

"  It  is  not  phenomena,"  you  say,  "  that  you  have  looked 
at,  but  laws,  and  a  law  is  a  thought."  This  is  the  answer 
we  expected.  Tell  us  then  positively  that  it  is  the  thought 
of  God :  if  not,  we  will  say  that  it  is  your  own  thought,  your 
own  sagacity,  your  own  penetration,  your  own  spirit  of 
discovery,  and  that  consequently  it  is  yourselves  that  you 
have  looked  at,  so  that  all  nature  has  only  been  a  mirror  for 
the  pride  of  your  intellect.  Worthy  subject  of  regard,  a 
wisdom  which  will  not  rise  to  God  !  Fit  subject  of  admi- 
ration !  man  detached  from  God  !  But,  in  fact,  I  mistake, 
there  is  much  to  look  at.  Monsters  as  well  as  prodigies  are 
entitled,  at  least  for  a  mojpent,  to  fix  our  astonished  regard. 
Thus  then,  after  having  looked  on  this  world  without  seeing 
God  in  it,  look  upon  this  look.  It  is  no  less  worthy  of  your 
attention  than  the  wonders  of  the  universe.  The  universe 
itself  might  look  at  it.  Creation,  if  it  had  a  soul  and  a  voice, 
would  cry  out  at  the  sight  of  so  fearful  a  prodigy.  Nature, 
which  contains  prodigies  in  such  numbers,  has  none  equal  to 
this ;  for  even  its  monsters  exemplify  some  law,  whereas  the 
monster  we  are  speaking  of,  the  horrible  prodigy  of  man 
without  God,  no  law  can  explain. 

This  brings  us  as  near  as  possible  to  an  important  appli- 
cation of  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  are  many  who 
despise  material  grandeur  and  visible  lustre.  They  at  least 
plume  themselves  on  this,  and  that  is  something.  But  on 
what  do  they  turn  their  look  ?  What  is  the  object  of 
their  admiration  ?  If  it  is  intellect,  or  what  it  has  been 
thought  appropriate  to  term  spirity  (that  is,  life,)  the  repri- 


180  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

mand  of  Jesus  Christ  still  pursues  them,  "Is  it  this  you  are 
looking  at  ?  " 

Intellect,  whatever  be  its  dignity,  is  not  so  far  above  nnat- 
ter  as  it  is  beneath  charity.  In  making  these  distinctions, 
and  measuring  their  distances,  we  mean  not  to  put  asunder 
what  God  himself  has  joined.  We  know  that  holiness,  or  as 
some  would  rather  call  it,  morality,  cannot  exist  without  in- 
tellect, and  that  the  being  which  thinks  not  is  not  a  moral 
being.  We  must  equally  believe  that  created  intellect  is 
necessarily  united  to  organs,  since  it  will  be  so  even  in  the 
abode  of  perfection,  so  that  man,  considered  as  a  whole,  is  a 
being  at  once  material,  intellectual,  and  moral.  Reduced  to 
any  one,  or  even  two  of  these  elements,  he  would  no  longer 
be  a  man.  But  if,  notwithstanding  the  intimate  union  be- 
tween intellect  and  body,  one  may  affirm  that  there  is  no 
comparison  between  the  body  and  the  intellect,  you  will  not 
be  surprised  at  our  saying  that  the  moral  though  inseparable 
from  the  intellectual  principle,  is  far  superior  to  it.  A  rela- 
tion between  superior  and  inferior  may  very  easily  be  con- 
ceived ;  only  it  is  a  relation  or  union  of  subordination.  Now, 
the  relation  of  intellect  to  morality  is  the  same  as  that  of  the 
body  to  the  intellect ;  the  body  is  the  organ  of  the  intellect, 
and  the  intellect  is,  in  its  turn,  the  organ  of  morality,  unless 
indeed  we  choose  to  say  (and  why  not  ?)  that  the  body  and 
the  intellect,  though  unequal,  are  together,  the  one  by  means 
of  the  other,  the  two  organs  of  morality.  This  then  is  the 
end,  those  are  the  means ;  necessary  means  I  admit,  but 
still  only  means.  In  speaking  thus  I  do  not  even  go  so  far 
as  Scripture,  which  says,  "  Fear  God  and  keep  his  com- 
mandments, for  this  is  the  whole  man.^'  If  this  is  the  whole 
man,  what  is  all  the  rest  ?  But  we  understand  Solomon's 
meaning.  The  whole  man  is  his  whole  destination,  the 
whole  reason  of  his  existence,  his  whole  glory  before  God. 

The  price  which  divine  love  paid  for  our  salvation  be- 


THE  STONES  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  181 

hooved,  doubtless,  to  ransom  or  save  our  intellect  as  well  as 
our  heart.  What  then  was  the  object  of  our  Saviour's  mis- 
sion ?  Whether  did  he  come  to  expiate  the  errors  of  our 
judgment  or  the  sins  of  our  will ;  to  teach  us  to  reason  well 
or  to  act  well  ?  Whether  did  he  mean  to  make  us  philoso- 
phers or  saints  ?  This  fact  alone  is  sufficient  to  establish  the 
truth  which  I  set  before  you,  and,  independently  of  this  fact, 
I  am  sure  that  your  conscience  establishes  it.  The  glory  of 
man  is  in  the  rectitude  and  proper  employment  of  his  will ; 
and  the  glory  of  the  intellect  is  to  contribute  to  the  triumph 
of  the  moral  principle. 

Now  there  is  no  occasion,  even  in  the  present  day,  to 
spend  much  argument  in  establishing  the  superiority  of  in- 
tellect over  matter,  although  matter  triumphs  in  many  hearts, 
and  even  in  many  theories.  But  there  is  occasion,  perhaps, 
to  repress  the  enthusiasm  of  knowledge,  and  pride  of  intel- 
lect. It  is  necessary  to  tell  men  that  if  their  subjection  to 
matter  is  a  degradation,  the  subordination  of  morality  to  in- 
tellect is  another  degradation  ;  that  the  most  intellectual  man, 
if  nothing  more,  is  only  an  intelligent  brute;  that  the  tri- 
umphs of  a  demoralized  intellect  are  not  essentially  different 
from  the  triumphs  of  brute  force,  and  that  the  excessive 
admiration  of  genius  proceeds  from  the  same  principle  as  that 
lust  of  the  eye  which  is  included  by  an  apostle  in  the  same 
condemnation  as  the  lust  of  the  flesh  and  the  pride  of  life. 

It  is  a  fact  which  cannot  be  disputed  or'justified,  that  in 
every  country,  but  in  certain  countries  more  especially,  in- 
tellectual talents  have  procured  pardon  for  the  gravest  errors 
in  conduct ;  and  that,  when  these  talents  have  been  superior, 
transcendent,  they  have  thrown  a  thick  veil  over  every  thing 
else.  Such  a  man  would  have  been  considered  in  society  as 
a  contemptible  wretch  if  he  had  wanted  talent;  but  with 
much  talent  he  is  never  considered  contemptible.  Without 
talent  every  body  would  have  shunned   him ;   but  he  has 


188  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

talent,  and  every  body  coul'ts  him.  At  least  he  is  seen  with 
a  different  eye  from  another  man  who  does  not  display  worse 
morals,  nor  adopt  worse  maxims.  Some  will  even  go  so  far 
as  to  say  that  a  certain  moral  regularity  is  incompatible  with 
genius,  and  that  it  would  be  too  much  to  expect  at  once  great 
talent  and  great  virtue. 

There  is  another  fact  which  cannot  be  either  contested  or 
justified  :  it  is,  that  simplicity  of  mind,  even  involuntary  ig- 
norance, or  a  certain  foible  in  judgment,  exposes  a  man  to  a 
contempt  sometimes  amounting  to  insult,  whatever  be  the 
purity  of  his  manners  and  excellence  of  his  conduct.  His 
good  qualities  will  perhaps  be  admitted,  and  be  even  men- 
tioned, but  only  as  extenuating  circumstances.  It  will  per- 
haps be  confessed  that  he  is  a  man  according  to  God's  own 
heart,  but  none  will  seek  to  warm  themselves  at  his  hearth, 
to  borrow  from  him  that  wisdom  among  the  perfect,  which, 
according  to  Scripture,  enlightens  the  most  simple,  and  which 
the  most  simple  teach  to  the  most  learned.  He  has  no  talent, 
and  therefore  he  goes  for  nothing.  That  he  should  not  be 
courted  for  his  conversation ;  in  other  words,  that  he  should 
not  be  asked  for  what  he  cannot  give,  is  plain  enough.  But 
this  is  not  all.  He  is  wrong  in  not  having  talent,  just  appa- 
rently as  a  man  is  wrong  for  not  having  added  one  cubit  to 
his  stature,  or  another,  I  presume,  is  wrong  for  being  poor. 
You  protest,  but  first  reflect.  Is  it  true  or  is  it  not  true  that 
poverty  exposes  us  to  the  contempt  of  certain  persons,  as 
riches  recommend  us  to  their  respect  ?  The  thing  is  unac- 
countable, absurd,  and  still  true.  Now,  has  the  contempt  of 
intellectual  poverty  any  thing  more  absurd,  more  unaccount- 
able than  the  other  kind  of  contempt  ?  And  if  vulgar  souls 
are  capable  of  despising  a  man  because  he  is  poor  in  this 
world's  goods,  will  not  other  souls,  one  degree  higher,  be  ca- 
pable of  looking  with  contempt,  or  at  least  with  disdain,  on 
men  devoid  of  the  advantages  of  intellect? 


THE  STONES  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  183 

Modern  idolatry  has  raised  two  altars,  to  which  a  crowd 
of  idolaters  press  forward.  One  of  these  is  the  altar  of 
matter,  the  other  that  of  intellect.  Upon  both,  human  victims 
are  offered  ;  for  all  idolatrous  worship  is  murderous  worship. 
The  adoration  of  intellect  has  its  barbarity  as  well  as  the 
adoration  of  matter.  The  man  of  intellect  finds  his  account 
in  sparing  nothing.  He  who  despises  most  passes  for  having 
the  most  sagacity.  It  has  been  said  that  the  heart  often  has 
intellect,  but  that  the  inlelle?)t  has  no  heart.  In  the  unre- 
strained pleasures  of  the  intellect,  as  in  the  unrestrained 
pleasure  of  the  senses,  the  heart  dries  up  ;  the  man  becomes 
cruel.  The  whole  truth  must  be  told ;  he  becomes  even 
stupid.  There  are  so  many  things  of  which  we  can  only 
judge  with  the  heart,  that  whenever  the  heart  happens  to 
fail,  reason  goes  astray.  To  know  to  what  degree  the  heart 
gives  intelligence,  to  what  degree  also  the  worship  of  the  mind 
lowers  the  intellect,  set  a  man  of  intellect  and  a  man  of  piety 
to  decide  a  case  of  conscience.  "  Thy  law,  O  God,  gives 
wisdom  to  the  simple ;  they  looked,  and  were  lightened." 

And  this  is  the  reason  why  in  our  day  the  intoxication  of 
intellectual  triumphs  gives  me  almost  as  much  fear  as  the 
general  tendency  to  material  enjoyments.  It  is  for  this  I 
would  wish  to  turn  your  eyes  and  my  own  in  the  same 
direction  towards  which  our  divine  Master  sought  to  turn 
those  of  his  disciples.  Poor  widow  of  the  Gospel !  humble 
female  !  whom  our  Saviour  has,  by  a  single  expression,  ren- 
dered for  ever  celebrated,  still  let  fall  your  mite,  your  labori- 
ous toil  mingled  perhaps  with  your  tears,  into  the  treasury  ! 
Tell  us,  if  your  humility  permits  you,  or  rather,  since  our 
interest  demands  it,  tell  us  what  emotion  of  your  soul  made 
your  indigent  hand  let  fall  for  others  as  indigent  this  part  of 
your  substance — or,  as  you  might  tell  us,  this  part  of  your 
flesh  ?  Our  eyes  are  satiated  with  the  splendors  of  the  sym- 
bolical sanctuary ;  open  to  us  the  sanctuary  of  your  soul, 


iM  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

and  unfold  other  splendors.  Show  us  your  sufferings  traris- 
formed  into  pity ;  your  misery  giving  you  eyes  to  see  the 
misery  of  others ;  make  us  read,  in  this  generous  soul 
applying  to  itself  precepts  which,  poor  as  you  are,  perhaps 
did  not  concern  you.  Tell  us  what  gratitude  you  feel  be- 
cause God  has  furnished  you  with  a  mite  to  give.  Communi- 
cate to  us  the  secret  of  the  surplus  from  labor  which  gained 
it :  the  prayer,  perhaps,  which  procured  it ;  your  whole  life, 
at  once  happy  and  painful,  of  fatigue  and  self-denial.  Admit 
us  to  share  in  that  glorious  fellowship  which  you  hold  in  the 
bosom  of  your  obscurity  with  the  God  of  all  consolation. 
O,  I  have  need  to  rest  my  eye  after  all  this  passing  show, 
and  my  ears  after  all  this  useless  noise  ;  the  pomp  of  power, 
the  pomp  of  intellect,  (another  power  more  haughty  and 
more  tyrannical,)  stun  and  fatigue  me  ;  my  heart,  empty 
and  famished,  has  need  of  substance,  reality,  and  reality  and 
substance  are  there  with  you,  poor  female,  forsaken  of  man 
and  visited  by  God  ;  but  with  thee,  above  all,  O  my  divine 
Saviour  !  in  whom  there  is  neither  form  nor  comeliness ; 
with  thee,  who  hast  said,  "  I  am  a  worm,  and  no  man,"  and 
who  art  nevertheless  Lord  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father ! 

For  it  is  there,  in  fact ;  it  is  in  Jesus  Christ  that  the 
Spirit  triumphs  in  the  annihilation  of  the  flesh.  There,  in 
the  absence  of  all  grandeur  appears  true  grandeur,  grandeur 
of  mind.  "  When  we  shall  see  him,  there  is  no  beauty  that 
we  should  desire  him."  But  who  speaks  of  seeing  ?  Feel- 
ing is  the  object.  Shut  the  eyes  of  the  body,  open  the  eyes 
of  the  soul,  and  you  will  say  with  Pascal,  "  O,  with  how 
great  pomp  and  magnificence  has  he  come  in  the  eyes  of  the 
heart,  and  of  those  who  see  wisdom !"  Behold  for  once, 
behold  the  true  temple  of  the  true  God  !  A  temple  of  marble, 
glittering  with  gold,  keeps  your  eyes  far  away  from  the  living 
temple,  in  which  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  dwells.  "  Is  it 
this  you  are  looking  at  ?"     Can  you  look  at  any  thing  else 


THE  STONES  OF  THE  TEMPLE.  165 

when  love  is  there  ?  Now,  love  is  the  glor}--  of  the  intellect ; 
it  is  even  the  glory  of  God.  He  in  whom  supreme  love 
resides  thereby  represents  supreme  grandeur.  This  is  what 
we  should  look  at,  and  look  for  aye. 

Ah  !  if  you  do  not  approve  you  will  at  least  comprehend 
those  who,  having  with  the  eye  of  faith  seen  Jesus  Christ  (i. 
e.  love)  living  and  personified,  have  no  longer  wished  to  look 
at  any  thing  else.  They  were  here  in  error,  but  all  errors 
are  not  equal.  Between  him  who  looks  at  Jesus  Christ  and 
nothing  else,  and  him  who  looks  at  every  thing  but  Jesus 
Christ,  which  of  you  could  hesitate  to  choose  ?  But  what 
you  will  understand,  and  what  you  will  approve,  is  that  they 
who  have  seen  Jesus  Christ  feel  pity  for  those  who  do  not 
look  at  him.  To  those  whose  view  is  alternately  engrossed 
by  material  and  intellectual  grandeur,  they  ask  as  he  did, 
"  Is  it  this  you  are  looking  at  ?"  In  the  view  of  eternity, 
the  herb  of  the  field  is  equal  in  duration,  equal  in  grandeur, 
to  all  these  monuments,  or  even  to  the  highest  conceptions  of 
intellect ;  for  in  the  universal  wreck  all  things  will  perish 
which  are  not  united  to  God,  who  alone  is  above  all  wreck. 
All  things,  I  say ;  your  very  thoughts.  Pyramids  or  sys- 
tems, no  matter  ;  towering  Alps,  or  dreams  higher  than  the 
highest  mountains,  ye  will  perish  together!  God  alone  is 
immortal,  and  communicates  his  immortality  only  to  that 
which  is  conformable  to  him,  is  united  to  him.  Obedience 
in  humility,  obedience  by  love,  never  perish.  The  gifts  of 
nature  are  revocable  ;  the  gifts  of  grace  are  immortal. 

It  is  also  in  this  sense  that  Jesus  Christ  has  brought  life 
and  immortality  to  light,  and  the  glory  of  Christianity  is  to 
have  reduced  visible  things  to  their  true  value,  and  assigned 
them  their  place  in  contrast  with  things  invisible.  This 
characteristic  is  even  so  prominent,  that  it  seems  impossible 
to  understand  and  receive  Christianity  except  as  the  reign  of 
intellect,  and  the  triumph  of  what  is  invisible.     But  Christi- 


1S6  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

anity  has  taken  a  form  in  the  world  ;  it  has  become  visible. 
Travelling  over  ages,  and  propagating  itself  in  the  world,  it 
has  assumed  a  place  among  the  things  to  which  the  world 
pays  regard  ;  and  besid_es  this  grandeur  of  space  and  dura- 
tion which  procures  it  a  species  of  respect  on  the  part  of  the 
most  indifferent,  it  has,  by  its  intellectual  grandeur  (I  mean 
by  the  grandeur  of  the  ideas  which  it  expresses,  and  those 
which  it  suggests,)  captivated  the  regard  and  admiration  of 
thinkers.  Thus  is  it  great  after  the  fashion  of  the  world. 
Beware  of  admiring  it  most  of  all  for  that  grandeur.  Let 
us  fear  lest  its  true  grandeur  escape  our  notice.  Let  us  not 
allow  our  eye  to  be  misled,  and  oblige  Jesus  Christ  to  say  to 
us  again,  "  Is  it  this  you  are  looking  at  ?"  How  great  our 
misfortune  if  we  should  have  entered  the  empire  of  the  in- 
visible only  to  link  ourselves  more  securely  to  the  visible, 
and  if  in  the  kingdom  of  spirit  we  should  have  been  able 
only  to  find  the  world  !  How  miserable,  if  trusting  to  those 
vain  and  hollow  words,  "  The  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple 
of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,"  we  should  neglect,  as 
the  prophet  says  in  the  same  place,  thoroughly  to  amend  our 
ways  and  our  doings.  Jer.  vii.  4,  5.  To  look  only  to  this 
twofold  greatness  of  Christianity,  the  material  and  intellec- 
tual, is  truly  to  do  like  the  first  companions  of  Jesus  Christ, 
to  fix  our  look  upon  stones.  Vast  thoughts,  secular  tradi- 
tions, splendid  recollections,  all  these  are  stones ;  cold  mate- 
rials, hard  and  dead.  There  are  other  stones,  living  stones, 
which  form  together  a  spiritual  building,  a  holy  priesthood. 
1  Peter  ii.  5.  Of  the  number  of  those  living  stones  was 
probably  this  woman,  whose  generous  charity  Jesus  Christ 
had  observed ;  of  this  number  are  all  those  sincere  and 
humble  souls  who  by  repentance  have  been  born  to  the  new 
life  which  is  hidden  with  Christ  in  God  ;  souls,  some  of  whom 
perhaps  have  not  been  able  to  give  God  any  thing  but  them- 
selves, but  given  unreservedly.      Here  are    the    beautiful 


THE    STONES   OF    THE   TEMPLE.  187 

Stones  and  splendid  gifts  at  which  we  ought  to  look.  Let  us 
seek  them ;  let  us  seek,  beneath  this  noisy  world,  which  is 
carried  away  by  vanity,  as  well  as  beneath  the  external 
majesty  of  worship,  beneath  the  forms,  it  may  be  imposing 
forms,  of  religious  establishment — let  us  seek  this  secret, 
and,  in  some  measure,  subterraneous  world,  those  catacombs 
of  humility  in  which  is  silently  celebrated  the  worship  in 
spirit  and  in  truth,  and  in  which  is  practised  a  religion  pure 
and  undefiled.  There,  a  spiritual  spectacle,  whose  beauty 
will  fill  our  hearts  with  rapture,  awaits  us.  Humility,  for- 
giveness, alms,  patience,  prayer,  devotedness  to  God,  thirst 
after  righteousness,  zeal  for  the  Divine  glory, — these  are  the 
splendors  of  this  sanctuary  ;  splendors  rendered  still  more 
striking  by  contrast  when  it  is  a  poor  man,  a  slave,  an  igno- 
rant man,  a  child — what  do  I  say  ? — a  penitent  malefactor, 
who  exhibits  them  in  his  own  person.  O,  how  far  is  a  sin- 
cere love  of  true  grandeur  still  removed  from  our  heart ! 
How  readily  does  the  obscurity,  sometimes  sadness,  which 
shrouds  this  beauty,  repel  us  !  how  willingly  do  we  keep 
company  with  noise  and  pride !  how  carnal  we  still  are  ! 
how  little  prepared  for  this  kingdom  of  God,  which  is  the 
kingdom  of  spirit !  how  much  we  require  to  change  and 
grow,  if  not  to  be  born !  A  power  higher  than  our  own, 
higher  than  all  human  power,  can  alone  raise  us  to  that 
point  of  view  from  which  whatever  is  little  appears  little,  and 
whatever  is  great  appears  great.  But  cannot  we  even  now 
ask  of  Him  who  disposes  of  this  power  to  exert  it  in  our 
behalf,  and  give  at  length  to  us,  as  he  has  given  to  others, 
"  those  eyes  of  the  heart  which  see  wisdom  ?" 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.' 


•'  Salvation  is  of  the  Jews." — John  iv.  22. 

The  whole  pride  of  modern  wisdom  may  be  summed  up  in 
one  sentence,  and  this  sentence,  a  very  different  one  from 
that  which  I  propose  for  your  meditation,  is  :  The  salvation 
of  man  is  from  man.  Men  love  to  persuade  themselves,  and, 
by  dint  of  repetition,  come  to  believe  that  human  nature 
draws  every  thing  from  its  own  proper  resources.  At  all 
times  has  this  been  said,  but  not  always  in  the  same  sense. 
Human  nature  formerly  was  each  man  taken  individually. 
Each  man  by  his  own  strength  and  spontaneous  development 
accomplished  his  own  salvation,  or  to  express  the  idea  in  a 
manner  still  more  conformable  to  human  pride,  each  man 
provided  for  his  own  destiny,  and  made  himself  secure  of  the 
greatest  possible  sum  of  holiness,  both  in  this  world  and  the 
next,  provided  there  be  a  next.  How  these  individual  and 
independent  attempts  could  lead  to  the  collective  salvation  of 
mankind,  the  fulfilment  of  his  destiny  on  the  earth,  the  reali- 

*  This  discourse,  perhaps  too  abstruse  for  the  pulpit,  appears  to  have 
been  delivered  as  a  professional  lecture. 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  189 

zation  even  of  the  idea  of  human  nature,  was  not  said,  and 
was  not  explained.  The  fact  is  that  it  was  seldom  thought 
of.  At  a  much  later  period,  and  under  influences  of  which 
we  shall  afterwards  have  to  speak,  was  formed  the  great  idea 
now  so  widely  diffused,  which  considers  human  nature  as 
one  person,  or  at  least  as  a  society.  The  very  idea,  the 
word  humanity,  (human  nature,)  scarcely  existed,  at  least 
as  a  collective  name  for  the  human  race.  It  must  not  then 
be  imagined  that  there  could  have  been  any  question  as  to 
the  future  prospect,  the  destiny,  and  still  less  the  salvation  of 
humanity. 

However,  at  no  time,  and  still  less  in  ancient  times  than 
in  the  present  day,  could  man  have  considered  himself 
merely  as  an  individual  being.  Facts  did  not  allow  it,  nor 
were  his  powers  in  any  case  adequate  to  it ;  for  man  comes 
into  the  world  under  the  law  of  collective  being,  and  society 
is  to  man  what  the  soil  is  to  the  plant.  Moreover,  the  idea 
of  individual  existence  in  regard  to  all  that  is  moral  and  sub- 
lime in  it,  had  long  been  too  high  for  him.  If  he  had  not 
the  idea  of  a  humanity,  which  out  of  all  human  beings  forms 
one  whole,  a  unit,  a  person,  so  he  must  have  been  incapable 
of  forming  an  idea  of  individuality,  in  virtue  of  which  each 
man  belongs  to  himself,  is  a  true  person,  and  depends  imme- 
diately on  God.  In  other  words,  he  was  incapable  of 
entertaining  two  opposite  ideas,  or  to  speak  more  exactly, 
incapable  of  uniting  in  his  thought  the  two  forms  of  one 
single  and  same  idea,  which  is  that  of  man,  an  idea  which 
is  not  complete,  and  not  even  accurate,  unless  it  embraces 
and  combines  the  two  notions  of  individuality  and  humanity. 
It  was  between  the  two,  perhaps  at  the  middle,  between  these 
two  poles,  that  the  human  mind  sought,  and  we  may  even 
say,  found  a  resting  place.  In  this  twofold  impossibility  of 
being  truly  one,  and  at  the  same  lime  uniting  in  thought  and 
in  heart  with  humanity  as  a  whole,  nationality  came  to  its 


190  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

aid;  nationality,  a  true  idea  in  so  far  as  it  is  not  exclusive, 
a  just  and  beneficent  idea,  when  we  place  it  in  the  same  line 
where  the  two  ideas  of  individuality  and  humanity  meet, 
and  are  merged  into  one.  But  so  far  from  this,  nationality 
was  the  negation  of  both.  The  former  individuality  was 
absorbed,  or  at  least  rendered  lifeless.  It  immediately  lost 
its  finest  character  and  most  excellent  application,  I  mean 
personal  religion,  immediate  communication  with  God,  in- 
ternal liberty  of  conscience  and  of  thought ;  because  nation- 
ality, proceeding  on  a  principle  of  appropriation  with  a  view 
to  public  utility,  declared  the  religion  of  individuals  to  be 
natural  property,  and  merged  it  in  the  community,  insomuch 
that  all  which  remained  of  human  individuality,  as  an  impure 
residue  and  coarse  refuse,  was  only  selfishness.  In  regard 
to  the  idea  of  humanity,  (which  is  as  old  as  that  of  individu- 
ality, and  may  be  said  to  have  been  born  on  the  same  day 
with  man,)  it  had  become  almost  entirely  effaced,  and  all 
that  nationality,  that  collective  egotism,  that  personality  with 
a  thousand  heads,  did,  was  to  cause  the  least  vestiges  and 
even  last  remembrance  of  it  to  disappear. 

I  dare  claim  your  fullest  attention  for  this  important  fact 
which  pervades  all  history,  or  rather  whose  successive 
manifestations  constitute  all  history.  What  is  called  history, 
is  in  fact,  in  a  merely  human  point  of  view,  only  the  chrono- 
logy of  nationalities.  And  how  has  God  treated  this  fact, 
which,  though  true  and  legitimate  when  kept  within  due 
bounds,  is  false  and  fatal  when  exaggerated  ?  Has  he  re- 
jected and  disowned  it  because  it  was  abused  ?  No ;  God 
while  rectifying  has  accepted  and  consecrated  it,  and  has 
made  the  greatest  use  of  it,  for  he  has  made  it  contribute 
(admirable  arrangement !)  to  the  restoration  of  the  two  ideas 
whose  reconciliation  and  harmony  constitute  the  true  nature 
of  man,  and  the  truth  of  human  existence.  God  has  made 
nationality  subservient  to  the  double  and  simultaneous  tri- 


ONE    NATION    AND   ALL   NATIONS.  191 

umph  of  the  principle  of  individuality,  and  the  principle  of 
humanity. 

It  is  impossible  for  a  Christian  not  to  concur  in  what  we 
say,  when  he  casts  his  eye  on  the  words  of  Christ,  "  Salvation 
is  of  the  Jews."  But  I  cannot  repeat  these  words  of  our 
Master,  without  thinking  at  the  same  time  of  the  impression 
which  they  must  produce  on  one  who  is  not  a  Christian. 
Allow  me  to  stop  here  for  an  instant.  I  am  willing  to  omit 
what  is  strange  and  offensive  in  the  word  salvation  to  an  un- 
christian ear.  Every  one  wishes  to  be  happy,  none  wishes 
to  be  saved.  And  yet  the  word  would  not  be  objected  to, 
would  we  consent  to  give  it  a  purely  temporal  meaning,  and 
employ  it  to  designate  the  triumph  which  man  has  painfully 
obtained,  dearly  purchased,  over  all  the  elements  hostile  to 
his  happiness  which  creation  contains.  Well ;  for  the  mo- 
ment be  it  so.  But  how  offensive  to  hear  it  declared,  that 
salvation,  whatever  be  its  nature,  is  of  the  Jews  !  Some,  who 
would  not  be  astonished  were  we  to  tell  them  that  salvation 
is  of  the  French,  and  who  have  perhaps  in  different  terms  a 
thousand  times  declared  it,  are  indignant  when  the  happiness 
of  the  world  is  said  to  have  originated  with  a  wretched  people, 
bent  for  a  thousand  years  under  the  weight  of  universal 
contempt.  But  others,  and  probably  the  greater  number, 
are  merely  astonished  at  our  presuming  to  make  a  particular 
people  the  depositary,  and  so  to  speak,  the  dispenser  of  the 
common  felicity.  Each  people,  or  at  least,  each  great 
people,  would  willingly  adjudge  to  itself  the  emphatic  title 
of  middle  empire,  but  each  obstinately  refuses  it  to  all  the 
rest.  They  refuse  to  acknowledge  either  an  individual  or  a 
nation  as  their  saviour.  All  individuals,  it  is  said,  all  nations 
are  complete  in  themselves.  There  is  only  one  real  per- 
sonality, there  is  only  one  idea,  and  it  is  that  of  the  whole 
world  combined  without  distinction  of  individual  persons. 
Persons,  individual  or  national,  are  only  like  the  innumerable 


192  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

and  transient  ripplings  which  appear  on  the  ocean,  when  it 
is  stirred  in  its  lowest  depths.  They  do  not  agitate  its  mass, 
but  it  produces  them  by  its  agitation.  The  author  of  the 
salvation  of  humanity  is  humanity  itself,  nothing  more  or 
less  than  all  humanity,  which,  however,  I  presume  has  never 
been  convoked  to  deliberate  on  the  subject.  Nations  have 
hitherto  acted  separately  without  concert,  without  knowing 
one  another,  each  for  itself.  There  is  indeed,  I  am  per- 
suaded, a  convocation,  a  "gathering"  of  nations,  (Gen.  xlix. 
10,)  but  one  that  is  silent,  mysterious,  and  superintended  by 
Providence.  If  we  one  day  come  to  act  in  concert  from  one 
extremity  of  the  world  to  the  other,  it  will  not  be  without 
having  desired,  or  without  having  foreseen  it.  We  do  not 
assemble,  but  are  assembled ;  humanity,  whose  exploits  we 
would  at  present  relate,  is  still  creating  itself  slowly,  is 
gradually  being  formed  like  a  blessed  fruit  in  the  bowels  of 
the  Divine  mercy.  We  are  assisting  at  the  birth :  let  us- 
wait  till  it  takes  place ;  we  will  be  able  afterwards  to  tell 
what  it  has  accomplished. 

But  be  this  as  it  may,  and  whatever  be  the  diversity  of 
opinions  as  to  the  salvation  of  the  world,  no  one  wishes  it  to 
come  from  a  nation,  (unless  perhaps  it  be  his  own,)  in  par- 
ticular no  one  wishes  it  to  come  from  the  Jews.  I  mean 
none  except  Christians.  They  no  doubt  subscribe  respect- 
fully to  the  declaration,  "  Salvation  is  of  the  Jews,"  though 
perhaps  ihey  do  not  all  enter  into  the  meaning  and  force  of 
the  expression. 

With  regard  to  the  meaning  of  the  first  of  the  terms, 
there  is  no  dispute.  This  salvation  is  eternal  salvation,  and 
consequently  individual  salvation,  since  neither  nations  nor 
human  nature  are  eternal.  At  most,  it  is  necessary  to 
observe,  that  this  salvation  comprehends  both  the  welfare  of 
human  nature  as  such,  and  the  fulfilment  of  its  destinies  in 
whatever  way  we  are  pleased  to  understand  it.     If  it  is  of 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  193 

importance  not  to  reverse  the  terms,  not  to  make  human  per- 
fection the  very  end  of  the  Gospel,  the  object  of  the  mediation 
of  Christ;  it  is  of  importance  also  to  remember  that  the  one 
blessing  carries  the  other  in  its  train  ;  that  the  greater,  if  we 
may  so  speak,  includes  the  less ;  that  in  the  divine  creation, 
which  is  one  and  perfect,  there  are  intimate  and  necessary 
relations  between  individual  and  general  welfare,  between 
religious  truth  and  social  truth,  between  the  interest  of  time 
and  the  interest  of  eternity  ;  that  the  happiness  of  humanity 
in  this  world,  its  temporal  redemption,  is  as  it  were  the 
counterpart  and  seal  of  that  other  redemption,  which  will 
only  be  fully  realized  in  the  society  of  the  elect,  and  in  the 
abode  of  all  perfection ;  in  fine,  that  when  we  read  that 
Jesus  Christ  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost, 
we  must  understand  that  he  came  to  seek  and  to  save  not 
only  every  man,  but  also  man  as  a  whole  ;  consequently  all 
his  faculties,  all  his  capacities,  the  man  of  the  earth  as  well 
as  the  man  of  heaven,  in  other  words,  human  nature  as  well 
as  man.  The  Gospel  is  thus,  we  frankly  admit,  a  humani- 
tary  work,  inasmuch  as  it  is  a  work  for  behalf  of  man.  In 
all  senses,  the  Gospel  has  the  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is, 
as  well  as  of  that  which  is  to  come. 

But  this  salvation,  whatever  it  be,  is  of  the  Jews.  With- 
out referring  further  to  temporal  blessings,  to  social  advan- 
tages, to  humanitarianism,  we  say  that  the  reconciliation  of 
the  soul  with  its  Divine  Author,  the  right  to  call  him  Father, 
the  regeneration  of  the  heart,  the  sanctification  of  the  life, 
the  privilege  of  drawing  freely  on  the  treasures  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  peace  and  hope  here  below,  and  glory  and  immortality 
in  the  heavens,  and  to  say  all  in  one  word,  the  participation 
of  man  in  the  Divine  nature,  (for  so  an  apostle  has  expressed 
it,)  all  this  for  each  man,  for  all  men,  for  the  men  of  all 
countries  and  all  times,  is  of  the  Jews.  No  one  assuredly 
will  mistake  the  channel  for  the  source  ;  and  to  use  the 
IQ 


194  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

terms  in  their  fullest  extent,  each  will  repeat  with  the  multi- 
tude of  the  redeemed  in  the  Apocalypse,  "Salvation  to  our 
God  !  "  Rev.  vii.  10.  But  still  the  Jews  are  the  channel : 
if  not  properly  of  them,  it  is  by  them  that  salvation  comes  to 
us ;  and  salvation  is  heaven ;  salvation  is  God  himself. 

In  the  simplicity  of  its  ignorance,  ancient  poetry  repre- 
sented certain  countries  as  the  abode  or  cradle  of  the  rising 
sun,  as  if  the  sun  ever  stopped,  or  any  spot  in  the  world 
could  be  the  witness  of  its  birth  and  departure.  The  aurora 
has  no  country,  the  east  is  every  where  ;  and  the  countries 
from  which  the  sun  comes  to  us  have  seen  him  come  from 
some  other  country  to  which  it  had  in  like  manner  come. 
But  in  the  world  of  truth  and  of  grace  the  rising  sun  has  an 
abode,  and  every  country  is  an  east.  Salvation  is  of  the 
Jews.  Yes,  disinherited  land,  where  the  smoking  flame  of 
the  divine  wrath  alone  illumines  frightful  darkness,  thou 
wast  the  abode  of  the  rising  sun !  yes,  unhappy  people,  pos- 
terity of  another  Ham,  race  so  humbled  that  the  most  con- 
temptible think  themselves  entitled  to  contemn  thee,  people 
sunk  in  disgrace,  from  thee  our  glory  comes,  we  are  upstarts 
loaded  with  thy  spoils  and  the  treasures  of  thy  opulence. 
Salvation  comes  from  thee.  O  may  salvation  return  to  thee, 
and  may  this  West  which  thou  hast  enlightened  become  in 
its  turn  thy  East  ( 

"Salvation  is  of  the  Jews."  But  how  ?  Is  it  only  be- 
cause the  Saviour  of  men  and  Shepherd  of  humanity  was 
born  among  this  people,  and  in  his  marvellous  infancy  drew 
nourishment  from  the  breast  of  a.  Jewess  ?  Is  it  because 
thirty-three  years  of  his  earthly  existence  were  spent  in 
Judea  1  because  eternal  truth  proceeded  from  his  lips  in  the 
language  of  the  descendants  of  Jacob  ?  because  the  first 
disciples  of  the  Master  belonged  also  to  this  extraordinary 
people  ?  because  the  first  germ  of  the  Christian  Church  and 
the  niodern  world  was  thrown   among  that  dust  which  the 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  195 

blood  of  Jesus  was  to  dye  and  fertilize  ?  Is  it  because  Geth- 
semane  is  Jewish,  and  Calvary  Jewish,  and  because  a  Jew- 
ish tree  furnished  the  accursed  wood  to  which  the  Divine 
Champion  of  humanity  was  nailed  ?  Is  it.  in  fine,  (Oh, 
dreadful !)  because  the  sons  of  Abraham,  with  their  own 
hands,  planted  this  tree  of  death,  attached  the  beneficent 
hands  of  Christ  to  its  horrible  branches,  and  under  the  blood 
which  fell  from  it  drop  by  drop,  placed  their  own  heads  and 
those  of  their  children  ?  Is  it  only  in  such  senses  as  these 
that  salvation  is  of  the  Jews  ?  This  is  the  question  before 
us,  and  we  will  now  endeavor  to  answer  it. 

I  have  already  said,  and  I  now  repeat,  that  if  "  salvation 
is  of  the  Jews,"  it  is  not,  it  cannot  be  in  the  same  sense  in 
which  "salvation  cometh  from  the  Lord."  Two  declara- 
tions of  the  Gospel  cannot  contl-adict  each  other ;  and  the 
elect  speaking  in  heaven  cannot  belie  Jesus  Christ  speaking 
on  the  earth.  Salvation  is  of  the  Jews,  as  the  water  of  a 
stream  comes  from  a  hollow  basin  in  the  rock  at  the  top  of  a 
mountain.  There  the  water  is  collected,  and  from  thence  it 
flows.  The  Jewish  people  is  this  basin,  this  reservoir,  this 
immense  cup  in  which  the  living  waters  of  salvation  were 
gradually  collected.  But  these  waters  are  the  waters  of 
heaven,  which  have  slowly  distilled  them  into  this  cup  or 
basin.     We  all  understand  this  :  let  us  proceed. 

This  truth  being  established,  and  the  word  is  being  re- 
duced to  its  true  meaning,  we  might  begin  by  availing  our- 
selves of  an  idea  which  is  pretty  generally  diffused,  and  of 
which  our  age  boasts  the  discovery  ;  I  mean,  that  each 
people  is  the  bearer  or  representative  of  an  idea ;  and  that 
each  idea,  in  order  to  fix  itself  in  the  world,  in  order  to  be- 
come in  the  course  of  time  a  blessing  to  humanity,  has  need 
of  a  people.  It  is  true  that  the  individual  actings  of  some 
eminent  person,  prophet,  captain,  or  legislator,  are  discerned 
in  the  history  of  each  idea,  and  often  even  to  such  a  degree 


196  GOS  'EL    STUDIES. 

that  the  idea  takes  the  name  of  that  individual.  But  we 
must  not  deceive  ourselves  :  the  individual  did  not  invent  but 
find  ;  he  has  not  so  much  taught  his  people  as  been  taught 
by  them  ;  all  become  his  disciples,  but  he  began  by  being 
the  disciple  of  all.  It  is  their  own  peculiar  thought  that  he 
has  unfolded.  What  is  peculiar  to  him  is  his  having  pro- 
nounced the  magic  word,  and  while  giving  to  his  contempo- 
raries a  consciousness  of  their  instincts,  to  have  given  them 
a  will — an  immense  gift,  for  to  give  a  will  is  to  give  life,  is 
to  engender  and  become  a  parent.  But  still  it  holds  true  in 
this  case  as  in  every  other  of  a  similar  nature.  If  there  is 
a  father,  there  is  a  mother  also  :  the  father  is  the  thought  of 
an  individual,  the  mother  is  the  instinct  of  all.  Thought 
has  converted  instinct  into  a  determinate  will,  a  firm  purpose, 
and  from  that  moment  the'nation  has  lived. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  each  people  has  found  its  idea,  and 
each  idea  its  people.  This  means  that,  in  order  to  cultivate 
and  bring  to  perfect  growth  an  idea,  which  elsewhere  exist- 
ed only  in  the  bud,  there  has  been  found  a  people  or  race, 
and  in  this  race  or  this  people  an  individual.  Nations,  in 
their  intercourse,  have  bartered  their  ideas  as  they  do  the 
products  of  their  soil.  No  people  produces  all  ideas,  just  as 
no  soil  produces  all  plants :  each  may  be  said  to  bring  only 
some  one  to  maturity,  and  so  long  as  it  is  in  the  course  of 
being  formed  and  located,  it  allows  no  other  to  take  place 
beside  it :  it  is  intolerant  and  exclusive.  Human  weakness 
seeming  to  require  that  it  should  be  so,  it  becomes  imper- 
ative. 

Now  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  an  exclusive  or  merely 
exaggerated  idea  is  an  error.  In  a  certain  point  of  view, 
therefore,  each  people  seems  destined  to  cultivate  an  error. 
Deplorable,  but  too  true  conclusion !  Let  us  never  forget, 
however,  that  error  in  matters  of  idea  never  is,  and  never 
can  be  any  thing  but  a  fragment  of  truth  ;  and  looking  from 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  197 

another  point  of  view,  let  us  say  that  each  people  cultivates 
a  truth  at  the  expense  of  all  other  truths,  but  it  is  always  to 
a  people  that  the  adnninistration  of  this  truth  is  intrusted. 
Thus  considered  with  reference  to  humanity  at  large,  each 
people  is  the  head  of  a  school,  and  so  to  speak,  a  system. 

Such  is  the  uniform  law.  And  now,  if  each  partial  truth 
has  had  a  people  to  represent  it  in  the  world,  might  not  the 
whole  truth,  the  truth  which  contains  all  truth,  and  by  which 
alone,  properly  speaking,  other  things  are  true,  in  conformity 
to  this  great  law,  also  have  a  people  for  its  apostle  ?  This  is 
the  question. 

This  people,  apostle,  prophet,  and  pontiff,  this  people, 
teacher  of  all  other  nations  and  of  humanity,  some  will  with- 
out much  difficulty  admit,  while  others  will  absolutely  deny. 
I  say  that  some  will  admit,  namely,  those  who,  regarding 
the  truth  as  the  result  of  a  juxtaposition  or  a  judicious  com- 
bination of  all  partial  truths,  will  consider  it  possible,  and 
even,  in  the  course  of  ages  inevitable,  definitively  to  concen- 
trate all  the  elements  of  which,  in  their  opinion,  truth  is 
compounded.  To  ascertain  whether  this  concentration  has 
already  been  effected  ;  whether  the  time  has  come  for  clos- 
ing accounts,  is  a  question  of  fact :  but,  as  regards  them,  the 
principle  is  not  in  question,  and  it  will  be  seen  immediately 
that  they  grant  us  more  than  we  ask.  Moreover,  there  is  in 
the  world  a  powerful  and  numerous  body,  with  whom  the 
question  of  fact  has  long  been  settled.  What  is  that  which 
is  improperly  called  the  Church,  and  ought  to  be  called  the 
Roman  Hierarchy,  but  a  people,  or  at  least  a  tribe,  who  pre- 
tend to  possess  the  truth,  and  arrogate  to  themselves  the  ex- 
clusive right  of  dispensing  it?  Now  to  possess  the  truth  is 
to  possess  salvation,  provided  there  be  such  a  thing  as  sal- 
vation. 

I  have  said  that  others  will  absolutely  refuse  what  these 
grant.     They  will  say  that  the  truth  is  not  the  successive 


198  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

juxtaposition  of  all  partial  truths.  They  will  say  that  truth, 
like  the  seamless  robe  of  our  Lord,  is  one  and  indivisible. 
They  will  say  that  it  cannot  be  obtained  by  sewing  all  truths 
together.  They  will  say  that  in  order  thus  to  see  them,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  possess  them,  and  that  we  possess 
them  not  so  long  as  we  have  not  the  supreme  truth  from 
which  they  proceed.  They  will  say  that  that  which  makes  a 
nation  fit  for  cultivating  a  particular  truth,  unfits  it  for  culti- 
vating all  truths  at  once,  or,  which  comes  to  the  same  thing, 
the  truth  of  truths,  seeing  that  it  is  precisely  this  exclusive- 
ness  that  determines  the  character  of  a  people,  determines 
the  bent,  and  consequently  the  power,  of  its  will.  Thus  the 
supposition,  that  a  nation  might  be  the  depositary  of  supreme 
truth,  fails.  According  to  the  nature  of  things,  then,  there 
is  nothing  common  between  nationality  and  truth ;  and, 
though  it  may  have  been  said  with  reason,  that  each  great 
people  has  been  the  representative,  or  if  you  will  the  prophet, 
of  an  idea,  we  cannot  say  of  any  people  that  it  is,  or  will  be, 
the  prophetical  people  in  the  absolute  sense  of  the  term.  No 
people,  then,  considered  as  a  people,  is  the  people  of  truth, 
and  consequently  salvation,  which  is  closely  united  to  truth, 
cannot  come  from  any  people. 

Our  opinion  lies  between  these  two  extremes,  or  rather 
adopts  the  second  under  modification.  We  do  not  see  any 
thing  common  between  a  people  as  such,  and  truth.  Truth 
can  only  take  up  a  position,  can  only  dwell  in  the  individual, 
inasmuch  as  the  individual  alone  is  organized,  I  say  not  to 
create,  but  to  perceive  the  truth.  Nationality,  left  to  itself, 
is  not  qualified  for  the  part  which  some  would  make  it  play. 
But  I  do  not  say  this  of  nationality  pldfced,  by  an  extraor- 
dinary dispensation,  in  extraordinary  circumstances.  Such 
may  communicate  to  a  people,  not  the  nature  and  properties 
of  an  individual,  but  aptitude  to  receive,  preserve,  and  trans- 
mit the  deposit  of  truth.     God  takes  this  people  to  himself. 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  199 

and  makes  it  his  in  the  strictest  acceptation  of  the  term. 
First,  he  raises  it  from  the  dust  as  he  raised  the  first  man; 
he  creates,  fashions,  and  appropriates  it  in  a  special  sense, 
and  in  an  effectual  manner.  He  speaks  to  it  as  one  man 
speaks  to  another,  he  makes  it  at  every  moment  feel  his  pre- 
sence, which  he  evinces  by  miraculous  signs ;  he  governs 
and  directs  it  immediately  ;  in  one  vi^ord,  in  regard  to  this 
people,  he  substitutes  evidence  for  conviction,  and  sight  for 
faith,  could  such  a  substitution  take  place  absolutely  without 
annihilating  both  human  morality  and  faith,  which  is,  in  all 
cases  and  in  ail  senses,  the  principle  of  morality.  This  ex- 
traordinary government  is  what  is  called  Theocracy,  or  the 
personal  government  of  God.  All  primitive  nations  have 
pretended  to  enjoy  it.  Theocracy  is  the  universal  claim  of 
ancient  nationalities,  k  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  forms 
of  government.  A  chimera,  no  doubt  it  is,  but  one  which 
once  at  least  has  been  a  reality.  There  has  been  a  people 
who  were  the  people  of  God,  and  who,  in  circumstances  in 
which  there  was  no  room  for  deception,  distinctly  heard  the 
voice  of  God  himself;  thus  becoming  the  depositary  of  his 
divine  oracles,  and  exemplifying  sovereign  truth  in  its  insti- 
tutions and  its  laws. 

Observe,  that  to  make  it  the  people  of  God  it  is  sufficient 
that  it  has  heard  the  voice  of  God,  and  been  well  assured 
that  it  was  his  voice.  This  idea  leaves  no  room  for  more 
particular  ideas.  It  necessarily  becomes  the  characteristic 
idea  of  this  people.  Theocracy  is  necessarily  the  governing 
and  guiding  principle  of  a  theocratic  people ;  and  you  will 
see  that  when  God  reigns  personally,  when  the  people  exists 
not  only  by  him  but  for  him,  when,  in  fine,  his  will  is  reason, 
and  his  glory  the  end  of  all  things,  when  civil  life  at  every 
instant  and  under  all  forms  is  legally  only  a  worship,  no  idea 
stands  prominently  forth  among  other  ideas.  All  the  ele- 
ments of  which  in  very  different  proportions  the  moral  life 


200  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

of  a  people  can  be  composed,  balance  each  other  under  the 
empire  of  a  sovereign  principle  which  puts  every  thing  in 
its  proper  place,  and  arranges  while  overruling  all. 

Observe  again,  that,  in  the  case  which  has  been  supposed, 
there  is  nothing  tending  to  consecrate  the  false  and  dangerous 
principle  which  arbitrarily  fixes  a  relation  between  national- 
ity and  truth.  Here  in  fact  we  have  not  a  nation  which  con- 
ceives an  idea,  but  a  nation  which  receives  it.  The  nation 
cannot  even  in  this  case  be  likened  to  a  mother  who  may  say 
to  the  child  to  whom  she  has  given  birth,  This  being  is  part 
of  myself.  No,  the  nation  is  here  completely  passive,  like 
the  basin  which  receives  the  waters  of  heaven,  or  the  chan- 
nel in  which  they  flow.  It  is  a  locality  for  truth,  a  haven, 
an  asylum,  and,  moreover,  this  asylum  is  temporary.  This 
rule  of  theocracy,  which  is  true,  and  alone  true,  if  we  look 
only  to  the  idea  of  which  it  is  the  symbol,  the  sovereign 
authority  of  God,  is,  however,  in  regard  to  application  and 
detail,  only  a  symbolical  and  preparatory  rule,  since  man 
does  not  rise  to  his  full  ^dignity  without  liberty,  which  theo- 
cratic rule  checks  and  suspends. 

But  still,  you  will  say,  why  curb,  why  suspend  it  ?  It 
is  proved  to  us  that  a  people  may  become  the  depositary  of 
truth,  God  making  it  capable  of  being  so :  but  will  God  do 
all  that  he  can  ?  Why  this  halting  of  truth  in  nationality  ? 
Why,  instead  of  those  preliminaries  and  delays,  not  proceed 
at  once  to  the  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  which  ceases  to 
attach  the  truth  to  a  particular  spot,  and  confine  it  to  a 
nation  ?  Was  it  then  necessary  that  truth  should  lay  aside 
its  wings,  and,  instead  of  reaching  each  soul  like  a  ray 
across  space,  humbly  plod  along  our  dusty  roads,  and  follow 
the  path  which  human  thought  has  pointed  out  ?  In  two 
words,  why  was  it  necessary  that  truth  should  be  at  first 
national,  the  aflfair  of  a  people,  or  race,  or  tribe  ? 

Another  objection  is  made  j  it  is  asked  if  in  fact  sovereign 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  201 

truth,  all  truth,  was  confided  to  the  Jewish  people,  and  not 
rather  a  particular  truth,  a  part  of  truth. 

It  is  asked,  in  fine,  if  salvation  does  not  resolve  itself  into 
the  free  and  candid  acceptance  of  salvation  ;  if  salvation  is 
not  wholly  included  in  the  person  and  work  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  consequently  if  the  Jewish  people  is  not  here  a  mere 
supernumerary.  If  so,  how  could  Jesus  Christ  say  that 
salvation  is  of  the  Jews  ? 

We  will  not  answer  these  objections  in  the  order  in  which 
they  may  naturally  present  themselves  to  our  mind.  The 
examination  of  the  last  will  gradually  give  that  of  the  other 
two. 

Salvation,  it  is  said,  is  nothing  else  than  Jesus  Christ 
received  into  the  soul.  Let  Jesus  Christ  and  the  soul  but 
meet ;  this  circumstance  alone  constitutes  salvation.  What 
then  has  the  Jewish  people  to  do  in  a  case  so  simple  and  in- 
dividual, and  how  can  it  be  said  that  salvation  isof  the  Jews  ? 

Yes,  you  say  well, — Let  Jesus  Christ  and  the  soul  meet, 
it  is  enough.  But  how,  at  what  cost  has  your  soul  obtained 
this  meeting  ?     I  suspect  you  do  not  know. 

When  under  the  burning  heat  of  a  mid-day  sun  your 
strength  and  even  your  life  are  fainting  away  from  oppressive 
thirst,  should  you  happen  to  fall  in  with  a  river,  and  a  little 
of  its  water,  a  drop,  perhaps,  restores  and  revives  you  :  you 
bless  the  drop  of  water,  for  it  was  it,  not  the  stream,  that 
refreshed  you.  You  did  not  drink  from  the  stream.  But 
did  not  the  stream  furnish  the  drop  of  water,  and  but  for  the 
stream  could  you  have  drank  at  all  1  But  for  this  would 
not  the  sand  have  absorbed  it  perhaps  twenty  leagues  off? 
This  volume  of  water  from  which  you  were  not  to  drink  was 
necessary  to  carry  along  the  drop  which  you  drank  ;  thus, 
every  thing  considered,  it  was  the  river  that  saved  you. 

In  the  same  way,  in  a  spiritual   sense,  it  is  the  Church 
which  saves  you,  because  it  gives  you  Jesus  Christ.     Far  be 
10* 


202  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

from  us  the  Popish  error  according  to  which  the  Church 
believes  in  God,  and  each  Christian  in  the  Church.  We 
joyfully  maintain  that  the  relations  of  the  believer  with  the 
living  water,  which  is  Christ,  are  immediate ;  and  that  the 
Church,  in  other  words,  the  Christian  commcStiwealth,  during 
successive  ages,  is  the  torrent  or  river  which  brings  to  us  the 
name,  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  so  to  speak,  Jesus 
Christ  himself.  Without  the  Church  there  is  no  Christianity 
and  no  Christians.  Unless  those  tears  of  heaven  find  a  bed 
to  collect  them,  unless  all  these  drops  of  living  water  become 
a  stream,  the  ground  absorbs  and  retains  them,  and  the  truth 
does  not  reach  you.  The  very  book  which  contains  them  is 
altered,  forgotten,  or  perishes  ;  and  without  an  entirely  new 
revelation,  without  a  miracle  incessantly  repeated,  you 
remain  in  ignorance  and  death.  The  Church,  by  its  volume 
and  its  weight,  forms  a  current  which  carries  it  forward,  and 
bears  to  each  of  you  that  word,  that  name,  that  invisible 
element  which,  incorporating  itself  with  you,  renews  your 
whole  being.  And  in  what  condition  has  this  current  been 
formed  ?  Do  you  not  know  ?  Look  well  at  those  waves, 
red  with  human  blood,  and  darkened  by  the  ashes  of  funeral 
piles.  The  perpetuity  of  truth  !  A  thousand  combats  have 
paid  for  it.  Suffering  goes  before  prescription,  pain  is  the 
mortar  of  this  everduring  edifice.  You  say  that  a  Christian 
word  pronounced  by  friendly  lips,  a  single  passage  of  the 
Bible,  less  perhaps  than  that,  has  converted  you.  But  what 
formed  around  you  that  Christian  atmosphere  which  you 
have  not  been  able  to  avoid  breathing  1  what  created  in  your 
heart  those  spiritual  wants  of  which  before  the  Gospel  there 
was  no  idea  ?  what  prepared  for  this  hour  of  silence  and 
reflection  the  mysterious  agency,  the  hidden  influence  to 
which  you  yielded  ?  Though  you  knew  it  not  it  was  the 
Church  ;  and  if  you  believe  me  you  will  understand,  perhaps 
for  the  first  time,  the  importance  which   the  Apostles   and 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  203 

Jesus  Christ  himself  attach  to  the  idea  of  the  Church,  that 
living  and  continual  personification  of  the  whole  body  of 
believers,  and  the  remarkable  prepossession  which  so  often 
leads  the  sacred  writers  to  speak  of  the  Church  where  you 
would  have  spoken  only  of  the  soul.  In  fact,  your  Christi- 
anity, how  individual  soever  it  may  be,  (and  in  my  opinion 
it  never  can  be  too  much  so,)  is  extracted  from,  is  stamped, 
so  to  speak,  by  the  Christianity  of  sixty  generations  ;  the 
Christian  as  well  as  the  physical  man  carries  in  his  veins 
the  blood  of  tens  of  thousands,  whose  successive  and  com- 
bined alliances  issue  and  terminate  in  him.  Ages  and 
nations  have  labored  for  each  of  you ;  each  of  you  is  an 
heir  of  antiquity,  and  the  work  of  a  whole  world. 

This  prepares  us  for  listenin<r,  without  surprise,  to  the 
words  of  my  text,  "  Salvation  is  of  the  Jews."  Why,  since 
each  of  us  proceeds  from  the  Church,  should  not  the  Church 
itself  proceed  from  the  Jews  ?  Why  should  not  the  Church, 
for  which  each  of  us  has  been  prepared,  have  been  also 
prepared  ?  If  it  is  not  too  much  for  a  whole  world  to 
give  birth  to  one  of  the  elect,  would  it  be  too  much  for  a 
people  to  give  birth  to  all  the  elect,  or  to  the  great  body  from 
whom  all  the  elect  are  taken  ?  But,  admirable  circum- 
stance !  as  every  thing  ends  with  the  individual,  every  thing 
proceeds  from  the  individual.  For  if  before  being  spiritually 
born  each  of  us  is  in  the  bowels  of  the  Church,  and  the 
Church  herself  in  the  bowels  of  the  Jewish  nation,  this 
whole  nation  was  in  the  loins,  or  rather,  in  the  heart  of  the 
father  of  the  faithful.     Abraham  is  the  father  of  us  all. 

Yes,  I  admit,  the  work  of  salvation  resolves  itself  into  a 
fact  strictly  individual ;  and  this  fact,  multiplied  by  the 
Divine  mercy,  is  properly  the  object  of  redemption.  For, 
though  the  righteous  must  form  a  society  in  heaven,  the  ex- 
cellence of  this  society  consists  in  the  individual  holiness  of 
its  members,  and  has  no  other  measure.     For,  if  the  work 


204  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

of  salvation  is  a  fact  strictly  individual,  it  depends  on  general 
causes ;  it  connects  itself  with  a  vast  body  of  facts,  in  such 
a  way  that  every  individual  who  believes  he  has  received 
the  gift  of  salvation  can  and  must  say.  My  salvation  is  of  the 
Jews. 

Salvation  consists,  it  is  said,  in  the  acceptance  of  an  un- 
conditional pardon.  It  should  rather  be  said  that  it  is  summed 
up  or  terminates  in  it,  just  as  lines  proceeding  from  the  four 
corners  of  the  immense  base  of  a  pyramid  meet  in  a  single 
indivisible  point  at  its  apex.  Salvation,  after  all,  includes 
and  presupposes  many  different  things  ;  and  it  is  thus  that 
the  ancient  posterity  of  Jacob  find  a  place  in  the  work  of  in- 
dividual salvation. 

This  proposition  would  be  too  easily  defended  if  we  could 
say,  as  many  perhaps  would  say,  that  Jesus  Christ,  the 
author  of  salvation,  is  only  the  last  expression  and  final  de- 
velopment of  the  wisdom  of  the  Jewish  people  ;  so  that  this 
people  becomes  our  saviour  in  the  person  of  the  most  perfect 
representative  of  the  Jews,  Him  who  is  by  way  of  eminence 
the  ideal  Jew.  But  we  will  not  speak  thus.  It  is  not  by 
the  wisdom  of  his  people,  nor  even  his  personal  wisdom,  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of  those  who  attach  themselves 
to  him.  He  is  so  by  himself  individually  and  by  his  whole 
person.  It  is  not  because  he  is  a  Jew,  but  because  he  is 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  the  Word  become  incarnate,  the 
ineflTable  union  of  human  nature  with  the  Divine  essence. 
His  wisdom  is  his  own ;  and,  far  from  having  been  taught  it 
by  his  people,  he  himself,  the  divine  Word,  has  at  all  times 
taught  his  people  by  the  mouth  of  the  prophets.  And  yet  it 
is  impossible  to  mistake  the  spirit  of  the  Divine  government. 
His  uniform  method  is  not  to  do  any  thing  precipitately,  not 
to  leave  gaps  in  history,  and  suppress  means  and  prepara- 
tives. His  miracles,  when  he  performed  them,  served  only 
to  widen  a  path  which  had  been  already  opened.      Jesus 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  ®0& 

Christ,  who  acted  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  a  proof  of  this. 
He  did  no  miracles,  except  to  encourage  faith  ;  and  did  few 
where  little  faith  was  found.     Matt.  xiii.  58. 

Although,  in  one  sense,  nothing  can   serve  as  a  prepara- 
tion to  the  incarnation  of  the  eternal   Word,  the  instruction 
contained  in  the  books  of  the  ancient  covenant  is  neverthe- 
less a  progressive  instruction,  which,  from  epoch  to  epoch, 
leads  us  gradually   forward  towards  the  Gospel.     The  law 
in  the  letter  you  see  succeeded  by  the  law  in  the  Spirit,  a 
ritual  worship   by  the   religion  of  the   heart,  legislation  by 
prophecy,  justice   by  love,  bondage   by  freedom,  the  idea  of 
salvation  by  works   by  the  idea  of  salvation   by  faith.     As 
prophet  follows  prophet,  who  sees  not  how   the  horizon  is 
streaked  with  light,  how  the  east  is  kindling  up,  and  the  first 
rays  of  the  star  of  day  darting  from  behind  the  hills  ?     Sac- 
rifice, to  him  who  sees  not  in  it  a   symbol  of  the  future,  is, 
as  it  were,  abolished  in  the  mind  before  being  abolished  in 
itself.    Moses  intervening,  had,  so  to  speak,  interrupted  Abra- 
ham.    Abraham  reappears  ;  the  spirit  of  Abraham  is  seen 
across    the   anathemas  of  the   law,  and  the  law  itself,  by 
causing  sin  to  abound,  is  preparing   men  to  desire  and  re- 
ceive grace.     The  sole  object  of  grace  is  still  absent,  but  he 
is  already  designated  and  characterized  by  prophecy.     This 
new  prophet  is  not  yet  called  by  his  name.     An  articulate 
description  is  not  yet  given,  either  of  all  the  circumstances  of 
his  advent  or  all  the  clauses  of  his  covenant,  but  at  length 
he  is  revealed  as  the  prophet  of  grace,  of  love,  and  of  free- 
will :  as  the  deliverer,  the  founder  of  worship  in  Spirit  and 
in  truth  ;  as,  moreover,  the  messenger,  the  Son  of  God.    He 
is  heir  av  once  of  the   miseries   of  man   and  of  the  love  of 
God.     The  religion  of  love  furnishes  a  foretaste  ;  the  air  of 
liberty  is  already  breathed ;  the  depths  of  mercy  are  stirred, 
and  the  human   heart  begins  to   cherish   unknown   hopes. 
Every  thing  in  these  successive  revelations  is  compact,  logi- 


206  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

cal,  and  regular ;  the  progress  of  opinion  among  a  people 
left  to  themselves,  would  not  be  more  so,  would  perhaps  be 
less ;  so  that  when  the  king  arrives,  there  is  a  people  ready 
to  receive  and  proclaim  him.  He  is  born  in  purple,  and 
reigns  from  his  cradle. 

This  people  which  waits  for  the  Saviour,  which  bears 
testimony  to  him,  and  will  be  the  first  fruits  of  the  great 
people  which  he  is  to  gather  out  of  every  tribe,  and  tongue, 
and  nation,  could  only  be  drawn  from  the  bosom  of  the 
Jewish  people.  He  is  its  chosen  one,  its  pure  essence  ;  he 
is  the  ideal  Jewish  people,  the  Israel  of  God.  Israel  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh  is  to  this  Israel  according  to  the  spirit  what 
the  tree  is  to  the  blessed  branches  which  will  be  divinely 
ingrafted  into  it.  Into  what  then,  if  not  into  the  tree,  will 
the  branches  be  ingrafted  ?  With  what  care  and  sage 
lingering  precaution  has  this  people  been  prepared  !  How 
miraculous,  and  at  the  same  time  how  natural  its  formation 
and  growth  !  What  travail  in  mind  accompanies  the  travail 
of  God  in  his  word  !  During  all  the  dispensations,  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  which  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people  is 
comprised,  how  do  the  religious  ideas  of  the  chosen  people 
become  matured,  strengthened,  and  purified !  How  well 
Divine  Providence  has  guarded  against  precipitation,  and 
adapted  its  pace  to  that  of  the  human  mind  !  How  carefully 
it  allows  each  experiment  to  finish  its  course,  each  idea  to 
take  its  time,  each  error  to  exhaust  itself.  How  completely 
dead  is  the  old  economy  when  the  new  commences,  and  how 
completely  the  whole  necessary  circuit  has  been  compassed 
when  Jesus  Christ  arrives  ! 

But  let  us  speak  not  only  of  that  spiritual  people  in  which, 
from  the  most  ancient  times,  Jesus  Christ  recognized  his 
Church.  The  Jewish  people,  taken  as  a  whole,  received  of 
God  the  education  necessary  to  be  the  forerunner  of  Christ 
amonor  the  nations.     It  is  true  indeed  that  a  fatal  division  is 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  207 

about  to  break  forth  in  its  bosom  on  the  appearance  of  the 
Saviour:  the  thoughts  of  many  hearts  are  about  to  be  re- 
vealed ;  those  will  be  known  who  under  the  name  of  friends 
of  God  were  in  their  hearts  only  the  enemies  of  the  human 
race  ;  they  will  crucify  the  Friend  of  the  human  race.  As 
others  will  at  a  later  period  turn  the  grace  of  God  into  licen- 
tiousness, so  do  these  the  law  of  God.  The  one  fact  is 
neither  more  nor  less  astonishing  than  the  other ;  but  it 
matters  not.  This  people,  to  whom  were  intrusted  the 
oracles  of  God,  carries  in  its  mind,  solemnizes  in  its  rites, 
reflects  in  its  manners,  the  elementary  ideas  on  which  the 
Gospel  is  founded  ;  alone  among  the  nations  it  believes,  seri- 
ously  and  effectually  believes,  that  God  is,  and  that  he  is  the 
rewarder  of  them  that  seek  him.  These  truths,  which  are  the 
patrimony  of  this  people,  it  has  in  its  different  dispersions  car- 
ried with  it  over  the  world.  It  has  sown  them  in  the  land  of 
the  heathen.  Despised  as  it  was,  it  has  succeeded  in  accus- 
toming the  nations  to  the  idea,  the  unheard  of  idea,  of  one 
living  and  holy  God.  This  was  essentially  to  prepare  them 
for  Jesus  Christ.  And  when  Christianity,  after  having 
collected  in  Judea  all  that  belonged  to  it,  after  having 
gathered  around  it  the  elite  of  the  Jewish  people,  or  rather 
the  true  Jewish  people,  makes  ready  to  conquer  Europe, 
beginning  with  the  ancient  kingdom  of  that  Alexander  who 
conquered  Asia,  it  finds  over  the  whole  Roman  world  ad- 
vanced posts,  citadels,  intrenched  camps  in  those  portions  of 
Israel,  in  those  Jewish  colonies  which  Divine  Providence 
had  scattered  up  and  down  upon  the  earth,  and  which  uni- 
formly became  the  first  Christian  Churches.  Thus,  in  the 
full  truth  of  the  expression,  the  Jewish  people,  even  with- 
out counting  the  apostles  who  were  all  Jews,  becomes  the 
prophetical  people,  and  proclaims  to  the  world  the  praises 
of  Him  who  has  called  it  out  of  darkness  into  his  marvellous 
light.     Legal  Jews,  Pharisees,  followers  of  John,  all  become 


208  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

the  first  conquest  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  his  name  the  first 
conquerors  of  the  world  which  is  given  him. 

But  it  is  not  enough  to  carry  into  the  world  the  name  of 
Him  whom  their  fathers  have  pierced,  they  also  do  much  in 
carrying  their  history  into  it.  This  history  is  the  heritage 
and  treasure  of  the  human  race  j  it  is  the  first  of  the  two 
revelations  of  which  Jesus  Christ  is  the  second.  That  the 
convert  to  Jesus  Christ  should  only  see,  should  during  a  time 
only  know  the  second  revelation,  that  he  should  not  in  a  man- 
ner know  what  to  make  of  the  first,  may  be  conceived  ;  but , 
it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  the  second  revelation  is  incom- 
plete without  the  first ;  that  not  only  because  the  first  reve- 
lation contains  the  titles  of  the  second,  because  the  types  and 
the  oracles  of  the  Old  Testament  speak  clearly  of  Jesus 
Christ,  because  a  whole  people  and  a  whole  history  prophesy 
of  him  aloud,  because  in  the  dispensations  of  which  this 
people  is  the  object  every  thing  converges,  aspires,  leads  to 
him.  All  this  although  important  is  not  suflicient  to  give  an 
account  of  the  whole  history  of  this  people.  But  if  God 
had  never  taken  to  himself  a  people,  as  he  took  the  Jews  ;  if 
he  had  never  exemplified  in  a  human  society  the  idea  of  his 
absolute,  direct,  exclusive  sovereignty  ;  if  once  at  least,  or 
at  least  in  one  place,  the  empire  of  God,  the  law  of  God,  the 
providence  of  God,  had  been  displayed  untrammelled,  and 
manifested  without  obscurity  ;  in  other  words,  if  while  pos- 
sessing the  New  Testament  we  had  not  possessed  the  Old, 
(Jesus  Christ  being  present  in  the  Old  Covenant  as  in  the 
New,  whatever  some  may  say  to  the  contrary,)  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Word  of  the  two  dispensations,  would  not  teach  us  all 
that  he  now  teaches.  The  Old  Testament  is  the  first  chapter 
of  the  history  of  man  and  the  history  of  God.  The  experi- 
ence of  the  Jews  is  our  experience.  It  is  for  us  that  we  see 
this  people  alternately  gathered  together  and  forsaken, 
scourged  and^blest.     Not  that  they  are  not  loved  for  them- 


ONli    NATION    AND    ALL    NATIONS.  209 

selves,  and  for  the  fathers'  sakes,  as  St.  Paul  says  ;  but  in 
the  marvellous  guidance  of  this  people,  God  was  preparing 
an  immortal  lesson  for  the  whole  human  race.  Not  only  the 
doctrine  preached  to  the  Jewish  people,  but  more  especially 
their  history  constitutes  the  treasure  of  all  ages  and  nations; 
because  as  history,  it  not  only  teaches,  it  estahlishes  what 
God  is,  and  what  man  is,  to  what  extent  God's  authority  is 
absolute,  and  his  law  sacred  ;  and,  in  fine,  it  establishes  the 
active,  determinate,  and  paternal  manner  in  which  God  con- 
stantly interposes  in  human  affairs.  It  will  not  be  denied 
that  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  is  an  element  of  salvation. 
Now  the  truths  to  which  I  have  just  referred,  are  at  the 
foundation  of  evangelical  truth,  and  form  part  of  it.  Chris- 
tian truth  forms  a  whole,  just  as  Biblical  truih  forms  a  whole. 
Neither  the  one  nor  other  is  divisible  ;  the  whole  must  be 
taken,  or  the  whole  left ;  and  when  once  we  understand  that 
the  Jews  are  the  types  of  mankind  ;  that  they  have  been 
taken  like  a  specimen  among  plants,  to  explain  the  nature, 
the  condition,  and  the  laws  of  the  whole  species  ;  when  each 
one  of  us  shall  consider  what  has  been  done  to  the  Jewish 
people  as  if  it  had  been  done  to  himself;  when  we  shall  be 
able  to  see  ourselves  in  the  person  of  Israel,  delivered  from 
Egypt  with  a  strong  hand,  crossing  the  Red  Sea,  miracu- 
lously fed  in  the  desert,  introduced  by  force  of  arm  into 
Canaan,  alternately  rebellious  and  penitent,  humbled  and 
elevated,  at  war  with  the  inflexibility  of  a  perfect  law  and  at 
the  same  time  the  object  of  ineffable  solicitude,  it  will  no 
longer  be  possible  for  us  to  believe  that  this  people  has  ex- 
isted in  vain,  or  that  we  owe  nothing  to  this  people,  or  that 
we  could  have  dispensed  with  it.  And  then  collecting  in 
our  mind  all  these  truths  at  once,  each  saying  to  himself: 
The  history  of  this  people  is  my  liistory,  the  history  of  this 
people  is  the  history  of  God  ;  this  people  carried  in  its  bosom, 
as  a  mother  does,  that  other  chosen  and  blessed  people  whom 


210  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

Jesus  Christ  on  coming  into  the  world  found  ready  to  receive 
him  ;  the  Jewish  people  foretold  the  great  truths  which  pre- 
pare for  receiving  Gospel  truth  ;  the  Jewish  people  was  the 
first  and  necessary  propagation  of  the  Gospel ;  the  Jewish 
people  at  the  commencement  of  Christianity  could  alone  bear 
witness  to  Jesus  Christ ;  the  Jewish  people,  choosing  or  re- 
jecting him,  is  the  immortal  witness  of  the  Saviour  ; — I  say 
that  a  Christian  after  having  considered  all  these  things  will 
have  no  repugnance  to  repeat.  Salvation,  my  own  salvation, 
is  of  the  Jews  ! 

People  who  murdered  their  God  !  we  sometimes  exclaim 
in  sorrowful  indignation  ;  prophetical  people,  let  us  more 
willingly  say,  symbolical  people,  destined  to  consecrate  even 
while  resisting  the  principles  of  the  Divine  government,  and 
to  preserve,  while  concentrating  and  bringing  near  to  each 
other,  the  blessed  germs  from  which  the  happiness  of  the 
world  was  to  spring  !  The  wisdom  of  God  is  infinitely 
varied,  but  his  work  is  one  ;  and  because  it  is  divine,  it  con- 
tains nothing  but  what  is  necessary  and  essential.  It  was 
necessary  in  order  that  this  individual,  lost  apparently  in  the 
abyss  of  time  and  the  mass  of  humanity,  should  know,  adore, 
and  serve  Jesus  Christ  ;  and  in  order  that  in  an  obscure  and 
perhaps  unperceived  existence,  he  should  contribute  to  the 
glory  of  his  Creator,  it  was  necessary  that  there  should  be  a 
Jewish  people.  Without  this  people  the  waters  of  grace, 
shed  at  hazard  on  the  earth,  and  every  where  absorbed  and 
lost,  would  never  have  formed  that  deep,  limpid,  and  irre- 
sistible current  which,  flowing  at  a  later  period  in  a  new 
channel,  has  formed  the  current  of  the  Christian  Church. 
The  first  people  was  necessary  to  form  the  second,  of  which 
you  form  part,  and  without  which  you  could  not  exist. 
Thus  the  whole  is  linked  together;  thus,  alternately,  the 
great  proceeds  from  the  little  and  the  little  from  the  great, 
the  general  from  the  particular  and  the  particular  from  the 


ONE  NATION  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  211 

general.  Thus  from  the  individual  was  born  the  people,  and 
conversely,  from  the  people  will  be  born  the  individual.  At 
the  outset  Abraham,  at  the  end  yourself,  and  between,  so 
as  to  unite  you  to  your  origin,  a  nation  and  a  Church,  the 
Jewish  people  and  the  Christian  people.  Such  is  the  provi- 
dence of  God,  who,  from  heaven,  as  the  Psalmist  says, 
beholds  all  things,  the  highest  and  the  lowest,  the  atom  and 
the  universe,  all  and  each,  worlds  and  me. 

Here  I  cannot  help  turning  your  attention  to  another  text 
of  Scripture  :  "  The  diminishing  of  them,"  says  St.  Paul  in 
speaking  of  the  Jews,  "is  the  riches  of  the  Gentiles."  Rom. 
xi.  12.  If  there  is  an  offence  in  these  words,  it  is  easy  to 
remove  it.  As  a  people,  that  is,  as  a  political  society  or 
race,  the  Jews  could  not  become  the  new  people,  the  wholly 
spiritual  people.  Under  the  rule  of  complete  liberty,  which 
is  that  of  complete  truth,  on  the  individual  resuming  his 
rights,  nationality  loses  its  privilege.  The  new  economy 
behooved  to  open  by  an  appeal  to  individuality,  and  this 
appeal  necessarily  led  to  a  diminution.  Alas  !  a  diminution 
so  considerable,  that  St.  Paul  at  the  same  place  terms  it  a 
falling  aivay  of  the  Jewish  people.  If  this  diminution  is  not 
in  itself  the  cause  of  the  riches  of  the  world,  it  is  at  least  an 
inevitable  condition  of  them.  The  new  people  could  not  be 
enlarged,  or  even  formed,  except  at  the  cost  of  the  diminution 
of  the  old  people  ;  the  world  could  not  be  enriched  except  by 
the  poverty  of  Israel.  Thenceforward  the  prophetic  people 
appears  to  me  as  a  victimized  people.  But  it  is  not  so  for 
ever.  It  must  be  gathered  anew,  and  is  gathered  every 
day ;  but  it  is  after  the  manner  of  the  new  people,  according 
to  the  principle  of  individuality,  and  according  to  the  law  of 
liberty.  This  illustrious  race,  to  which  pertained  the  adop- 
tion, and  the  glory,  and  the  covenants,  the  ordinance  of  the 
law,  divine  service,  and  the  promises ;  this  race  from  which 
Christ  is  descended,  is  not  destined  to  be  for  ever  among  the 


212  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

nations  a  deplorable  monument  of  the  Divine  anger.  After 
having  seen  its  diminution,  tiie  world  will  see  its  fulness. 
If  their  diminishing,  says  the  Apostle,  is  our  riches,  what 
will  their  fulness  be  ?  When  the  fulness  of  Israel  shall  have 
returned  to  the  fold,  will  not  Israel  again  be  a  prophetic 
people  ?  Will  not  the  accomplishment  of  this  promise  be  to 
itself  as  a  testimony  of  the  Divine  faithfulness,  an  admonitor 
to  all  nations,  and  a  powerful  call  upon  all  to  faith  and 
obedience ;  and  will  not  this  people,  as  marvellous  in  its 
restoration  as  in  its  fall,  be  again,  and  more  than  ever,  a 
powerful  leaven  to  leaven  the  mass  of  humanity  ?  In  every 
case,  its  fulness  will  be  our  joy  and  consolation.  None  of 
us  acquiesce  in  the  idea  that  God  has  for  ever  rejected  the 
instrument  of  the  world's  deliverance ;  and  we  have  no 
difficulty  in  entering  into  the  spirit  of  those  passages,  as 
explicit  as  numerous,  in  which,  long  before  the  falling  and 
diminution,  fulness  was  prophesied,  and  in  which  the  God  of 
Abraham  sheds  on  the  descendants  of  Abraham  all  the 
treaures  of  his  immortal  tenderness.  The  meaning  of  the 
prophecy  still  remains  vailed  to  the  unhappy  posterity  of 
Jacob  ;  but  the  time  will  at  length  come  when,  the  vail 
being  taken  away,  they  as  well  as  we  will  clearly  compre- 
hend the  following  affecting  words  :  "  Behold,  I  have  graven 
thee  upon  the  palms  of  my  hands ;  thy  walls  are  continually 
before  me.  Thy  children  shall  make  haste.  ...  As  I  live, 
saith  the  Lord,  thou  shalt  surely  clothe  thee  with  them  all, 
as  with  an  ornament,  and  bind  them  on  thee,  as  a  bride  doeth. 
For  thy  waste  and  thy  desolate  places,  and  the  land  of  thy 
destruction,  shall  even  now  be  too  narrow  by  reason  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  they  that  swallowed  thee  up  shall  be  far 
away."     Isa.  xlix.  16-19. 


CHRISTIAN  UTILITARIANISM. 


"  Mercy  and  truth  are  met  together." — Psalm  Ixxxv.  10. 

Among  the  charges  which  have  been  brought  against  Chris- 
tianity, (and  what  charges  have  not  been  brought  ?)  there  is 
one  which  in  our  day  seems  to  be  specially  insisted  on  :  it  is 
that  Christianity  appeals  too  exclusively  to  the  love  of  happi- 
ness, and  is  in  open  league  with  the  selfishness  of  the  human 
heart.  No  charge  can  be  more  grave,  since,  if  it  is  well- 
founded,  it  leaves  Christianity  destitute  of  the  highest  merit 
to  which  all  religion  lays  claim,  namely,  that  of  rendering 
us  better,  this  being  possible  only  by  detaching  us  from  our- 
selves. Christianity  would  thus  have  aggravated  the  evil 
which  it  was  its  business  to  cure;  and,  instead  of  merely 
saying  that  it  does  not  fulfil  its  end,  we  should  be  obliged  to 
say  that  it  runs  counter  to  its  end,  the  very  end  of  all  reli- 
gion, and  there  is  no  mere  human  morality  which  is  not  pre- 
ferable to  it,  since  all  human  morality,  the  most  elementary 
and  least  elevated,  means  at  least  what  Christianity  on  this 
view  has  not  meant. 

It  must  also  be  observed,  that  the  men  who  bring  this 
charge  against  Christianity  are   not  generally  infidels  of  a 


214  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

low  class,  mere  vulgar  beings.  Some  seem  to  be  men  of 
gravity,  and  the  greater  part  of  them  men  accustomed  to  re- 
flect ;  the  very  nature  of  their  objection  seems  to  speak  favor- 
ably of  their  character.  The  charges  which  the  mass  of 
unbelievers  bring  against  the  Gospel  are  of  quite  a  different 
nature ;  and  prior  to  discussion,  we  feel  disposed  to  give  the 
preference  to  those  to  whom  Christianity  seems  deficient  in 
spirituality  and  disinterestedness,  over  those  who  object  to  it 
because  it  does  not  gratify  carnal  sense  and  worldly  incli- 
nations. 

But,  in  fine,  brethren,  whatever  be  the  character  of  each, 
and  however  unequally  our  esteem  may  be  divided  between 
them,  it  is  no  less  strange  that  Christianity  should  have  en- 
countered two  charges  so  opposite  to  each  other — that  of  ex- 
acting too  much  self-denial,  and  that  of  exacting  too  little. 
Might  we  not  answer  the  charge  of  the  latter  by  the  com- 
plaint of  the  former,  that  old  complaint  which  began  with 
Christianity,  and  has  been  heard  ever  since  ?  And  might  we 
not  afterwards  meet  the  former  with  the  complaint  of  the  lat- 
ter, and  ask  those  who  charge  religion  with  harsh  require- 
ments, how  it  happens  that  others  charge  it  with  conniving 
at  our  selfish  inclinations  ?  Is  it  not  probable  that  a  religion 
against  which  two  contradictory  charges  are  made,  does  not, 
in  fact,  deserve  either  of  them,  and  that  these  charges  by 
their  contradiction  only  prove  one  thing,  namely,  that  Chris- 
tianity, in  regard  to  its  demands  and  its  concessions,  has  stop- 
ped at  the  very  point  at  which  it  ought  to  have  stopped. 
This  were  only  to  reason  and  conclude  as  all  the  world  does 
in  a  similar  case.  When  we  hear  two  contradictory  charges 
brought  against  an  individual,  our  first  impression  is,  that 
neither  charge  is  well-founded,  and  that  he  is  equally  remov- 
ed from  both  the  excesses  of  which  he  is  accused.  On 
stronger  grounds  might  we  thus  judge  of  Christianity.  For 
after  all,  the  same  man  may,  at  different  times  and  with  dif- 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIANISM.  215 

ferent  persons,  be  prodigal  or  avaricious,  lethargic  or  pas- 
sionate, and  alternately  merit  the  charges  which  could  not 
be  applicable  to  him  at  the  same  time.  But  Christianity  is 
not  a  man,  who  may  at  different  times  differ  from  himself. 
It  is  a  doctrine,  which  changes  not  with  times,  or  more  pro- 
perly it  is  a  fact,  performed  once  for  all,  and  which  cannot 
from  epoch  to  epoch  be  invested  with  a  different  character. 
So  that,  always  similar  to  itself,  it  could  not  deserve  to  be 
censured  for  one  thing  to-day,  and  for  its  opposite  to-morrow. 
Therefore,  when  it  is  attacked  on  both  grounds,  we  must  be- 
lieve one  of  two  things — either  that  an  institution  composed 
of  two  principles  which  contradict  and  destroy  each  other, 
may  long  exist  and  prosper  contrary  to  the  old  maxim,  "  that 
a  kingdom  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand;"  or,  that  the 
two  charges  brought  against  Christianity  are  equally  un- 
founded, and  that  between  the  two  extremes  alleged,  it  has 
kept  the  proper  medium.  You  will  judge,  brethren,  which 
of  these  two  suppositions  is  the  more  reasonable. 

But  shall  we  confine  ourselves  to  this  reply,  or  even  have 
recourse  to  it  ?  No,  brethren  ;  for  so  far  from  repelling  these 
two  charges  in  the  name  of  Christianity,  we  in  its  name  ac- 
cept both  of  them.  We  even  go  farther  than  they  do.  In  our 
opinion,  it  is  not  going  far  enough  to  say  that  Christianity 
gives  too  much  to  interest,  or  too  much  to  duty.  Too  much, 
a  little  too  much,  greatly  too  much,  are  vague  terms  ;  for  these 
we  substitute  absolute  terms.  We  say,  (because  it  is  true,) 
that  Christianity  gives  every  thing  to  interest,  and  every  thing 
to  duty.  And  we  say  that  this  must  be,  because  Christianity, 
if  it  is  true,  must  correspond  with  human  nature  in  whatever 
in  it  is  essential  and  ineffaceable.  Against  this  nature,  not 
against  Christianity,  ought  the  charges  to  have  been  made.  Of 
the  former  may  it  be  truly  said  that  it  contains  two  opposite 
principles,  each  of  which  is  absolute,  and  claims  possession 
of  the  whole  soul.     It  indeed  wishes  always,  and  at  every 


216  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

moment,  two  contrary  things.  Observe  that  we  are  not  here 
speaking  of  any  individual  man,  but  of  human  nature.  Alas ! 
how  many  are  there  who  seem  ever  to  wish  but  one  thing — 
their  interest !  How  few  who  wish  at  once,  or  conceive  that 
any  union  exists  between  two  things  so  different  in  appear- 
ance as  their  interest  and  the  interest  of  God  !  But  what  the 
individual  wills  not,  usually,  universally,  and  uniformly,  hu- 
man nature  wills;  in  other  words,  there  is  something  in  man 
which  urges  him  at  once  to  seek  his  happiness,  and  to  make 
sacrifices;  something  which  tells  him  at  once  that  he  is  made 
to  be  happy,  that  he  exists  for  himself  and  yet  belongs  not  to 
himself.  There  is  no  person  who  does  not  find  these  two 
feelings,  more  or  less  distinctly,  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart. 
Who  wishes  to  be  half  happy  ?  Who  thinks  he  can  give  half 
obedience  ?  Who  does  not  bear  within  himself  an  inextin- 
guishable thirst  for  happiness,  and  an  inexorable  longing  for 
perfection  ?  And  how  can  we  belong  equally  to  these  two 
principles ;  in  other  words,  entirely  to  ourselves,  and  entirely 
to  duty  ? 

Brethren,  if  we  are  to  be  astonished  or  offended  at  any 
thing,  it  should  be  first  of  all  at  this.  Yet  no  one  thinks  of 
upbraiding  human  nature  with  this  contradiction,  because  hu- 
man nature  is  a  fact  in  which  nothing  can  be  changed,  and 
which  must  be  taken  as  it  is.  But  then,  why  feel  astonished 
when  that  which  is  in  man  is  found  also  in  religion  ?  Why 
should  religion  be  suspected  for  reproducing  a  phenomenon, 
and  not  rather  for  not  reproducing  it  ?  Why  should  this  fact, 
instead  of  making  us  judge  it  false,  not  make  us  presume  it 
true.  No  doubt  it  ought  not  to  be  satisfied  with  reproducing 
contradiction  ;  no  doubt  it  ought  to  solve  it.  But  in  order  to 
solve  it,  it  must  recognize  it ;  and  when  you  see  it,  so  far  from 
distinguishing  these  two  ineffaceable  features  in  our  nature, 
namely,  the  need  of  happiness  and  the  law  of  sacrifice,  avow, 
ing  them  boldly  and  openly,  how  great  is  the  probability  that 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIANISM.  217 

it  has  found  the  secret  of  reconciling  them  without  weaken- 
ing either  the  one  or  the  other,  or  offering  the  least  violence 
to  them ! 

A  false  religion  would  escape  from  the  difficulty  by  deny- 
ing it ;  the  true  religion  recognizes  it  and  avows  it.  Its  task, 
its  triumph,  its  glory,  is  not  to  obscure  the  terms  of  the  prob- 
lem, but  to  harmonize  them,  to  convert  into  one  feeling  two 
feelings  hitherto  diverse  and  contradictory.  All  colors  agree 
in  darkness  which  destroys  them  all,  but  all  colors  melted 
together  form  the  pure  light  which  is  only  a  union  of  all  col- 
ors without  being  itself  a  color ;  for  every  particular  color 
is  a  commencement  of  darkness,  and  every  color  carried  to 
the  extreme  becomes  darkness.  Well ;  there  are  two  facts  in 
human  nature  which  we  have  singled  out  as  if  they  were  two 
colors  which  religion  undertakes  to  melt  into  one  pure  light. 
If  religion  is  true,  the  second  of  these  elements  will  under 
its  influence  absorb  the  first  and  the  first  absorb  the  second, 
holiness  resolve  itself  into  happiness,  the  desire  of  happiness 
be  satisfied  by  holiness,  the  two  principles  become  one  same 
principle,  and  the  two  men  who  are  in  each  of  us  be  no  long- 
er more  than  a  single  man.  For  it  is  the  same  being  who  in 
each  of  us  aspires  to  these  two  things,  refuses  to  be  divided, 
and  wishes  to  find  in  the  two  objects  of  his  pursuit,  himself, 
one  and  entire.  They  are  not  two  wants,  but  two  names  for 
one  same  want,  which,  having  at  the  fall  doubled  itself,  has, 
so  to  speak,  made  us  double,  created  in  each  of  us  two  dif- 
ferent men,  and  given  to  our  life  a  false  character,  because 
the  change  of  our  will  has  not  been  able  to  make  any  change 
in  the  nature  of  things,  because  every  thing  in  regard  to  that 
which  is  without  us  has  been  calculated  in  accordance  with 
our  first  condition  and  not  our  second,  and  the  change  which 
has  taken  place  in  us  has  not  been  able  to  make  us  find  hap- 
piness in  any  thing  but  holiness. 

Thus  far,  brethren,  we  understand  the  matter.  Religion 
11 


218  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

finds  the  love  of  happiness  and  the  principle  of  duty  separated 
in  us ;  and  its  mission,  its  masterpiece,  is  to  reunite  them. 
Religion,  in  other  words,  God  only  can  do  this;  but  we  do 
not  say  that  religion  only  can  conceive  or  give  us  the  idea. 
The  idea  is  not  beyond  the  power  of  reason. 

The  law,  you  know,  is  fulfilled  in  love.  Man  is  what  he 
ought  to  be,  and  has  fulfilled  his  destiny,  when  he  loves.  Now, 
setting  out  from  this  point  that  the  law  is  fulfilled  in  love,  we 
ask  if  the  love  of  ourselves  or  happiness  is  essentially  opposed 
to  love,  and  consequently  to  the  law  ?  How  can  this  be,  see- 
ing it  is  the  condition  and  starting  point  of  all  love  ?  How 
can  we  love  others  without  loving  ourselves  ?  How  can  we 
be  alive  to  what  touches  them,  if  nothing  touches  ourselves? 
How  could  we  comprehend  their  situation,  their  wishes,  their 
hopes,  if  every  situation  was  indifferent  to  ourselves,  and  we 
were  incapable  on  our  own  account  of  forming  any  wish,  or 
conceiving  any  hope  ?  How  would  there  be  room  for  devo- 
tedness  and  sacrifice  if  we  did  not  attach  ourselves  to  any 
thing,  and  were  indifferent  whether  we  possessed  it  or  not? 
How  could  we  desire  the  happiness  of  others,  if  the  desire  of 
happiness  was  a  stranger  to  our  nature  ?  How  could  we  en- 
joy the  happiness  of  others  if  we  did  not  know  what  it  is  to 
enjoy  ?  How,  in  fine,  could  we  be  separated  from  ourselves, 
which  is  the  property  of  love,  if  we  were  not  previously  uni- 
ted to  ourselves  ?  In  other  word-*,  how  can  we  live  in  others, 
which  is  the  property  of  love,  if  we  do  not  first  live  in  our- 
selves ?  You  see,  then,  that  this  love  of  ourselves,  so  profound, 
so  indestructible,  so  inseparable  from  ourselves  that  we  could 
not  ourselves  exist  without  it,  and  it  could  not  be  destroyed 
without  our  own  destruction,  is  the  prop  of  all  our  sentiments, 
and  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  our  affections.  But  this  is 
not  saying  enough.  It  is  not  only  at  the  foundation  of  our 
affections,  it  mingles  with  them  and  penetrates  them  ;  they 
are  full  of  it.    How  will  you  prevent  love,  love  the  most  gen- 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIANISM.  219 

erous  and  most  pure,  from  being  an  interest  and  attraction  ? 
Does  not  attraction  presuppose  some  soui'ce  of  pleasure  or  of 
happiness  in  the  object  towards  which  it  feels  attracted  ?  Does 
it  not  necessarily  find  happiness  in  what  it  loves  by  the  mere 
act  of  loving  ?  Do  not  these  two  ideas  so  correspond  that  it 
is  impossible  to  conceive  of  love  without  happiness,  since  an 
object  which  did  not  give  any  sort  of  happiness  it  would  be 
impossible  for  us  to  love  ?  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  very  true 
that  there  is  a  contradiction  between  a  premeditated  search 
after  our  happiness  and  love.  To  love  from  interest  is  not 
to  love.  The  terms  cannot  even  be  associated.  Nevertheless 
this  happiness,  without  being  sought,  is  found  ;  what  do  I  say  ? 
was  possessed  beforehand  and  resided  within.  Happiness  is 
not  the  recompense  of  love  ;  it  is  love  itself.  Love  is  full  of 
happiness,  is  happiness.  And  now,  if  you  suppose  the  soul 
attached,  not  to  some  special  and  passing  object  which  may 
give  it  a  special  and  passing  happiness,  but  attached  to  its 
law  (and  which  moreover,  whether  loved  or  not  loved,  would 
nevertheless  be  for  ever  its  law  ;)  if  you  suppose  the  soul 
loving  its  duty,  loving  holiness,  loving  God  in  whom  alone  all 
these  are  contained  ;  if  you  make  what  was  its  law  to  become 
its  love,  will  you  not  have  made  its  law  become  its  happiness, 
will  you  not  have  ended  the  war  between  the  two  elements 
of  its  nature  ?  will  you  not  have  reconciled  the  love  of  self 
with  the  love  of  goodness,  and  happiness  with  holiness .?  And 
does  not  this  mere  supposition  make  you  comprehend  that 
between  the  love  of  ourselves,  taken  in  general,  and  the  in- 
ternal law  of  duty,  there  is  no  essential  contradiction,  and 
that  there  is  no  necessity  of  destroying,  or  even  of  restricting 
one  of  the  two  elements  in  order  to  make  way  for  the  other, 
seeing  they  are  fitted  and  destined  to  form  in  our  soul  one 
single  and  common  sentiment  ? 

While  we  say  this  of  the  love  of  ourselves,  we  do  not  say 
it  of  that  other  affection  which,  derived  from  self-love,  is  only 


220  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

the  abuse  and  corruption  of  it ;  we  mean,  brethren,  selfishness. 
The  distinguishing  characteristic  of  this  affection  is  to  seek 
its  satisfaction  in  the  isolation  of  the  individual.  And  in 
fact  the  love  of  ourselves,  in  its  purity,  does  not  hinder  us  from 
uniting  with  the  rest  of  the  sensible  creation,  whereas  selfish- 
ness separates  us.  The  former  expands,  the  latter  contracts ; 
the  former  has  its  limits  in  all  the  beings  of  the  world,  the 
latter  in  ourselves  alone  ;  the  former  allows  us  to  multiply  our 
existence  by  sympathy,  the  latter  reduces  us  to  an  individual 
life,  which  thus  reduced,  is  a  death  ;  the  former  is  a  harmony, 
the  latter  a  discord  in  the  universal  concert ;  the  former  is 
truth,  the  latter  falsehood :  in  one  word,  the  latter  is  an  abor- 
tion  of  the  former.  Such,  brethren,  is  selfishness,  to  which 
every  thing  is  an  instrument,  and  nothing  an  end  but  itself. 
This  bastard  son  of  self-love  is  the  father  of  a  numerous 
and  abominable  family.  Vanity,  avarice,  voluptuousness,  all 
the  passions  which  carry  us  back  upon  ourselves,  which  im- 
prison and  bury  us  in  ourselves,  are  the  detestable  eldest  sons 
of  this  impure  race.  But  it  is  not  here  only  that  selfishness 
is  reproduced  and  multiplied  ;  it  is  present  in  all  merely  na- 
tural affections.  There  it  easily  gains  the  ascendency,  and 
often  exists  alone.  Alas  !  the  affection  which  on  earth  has  be- 
come the  type  of  love  itself,  maternal  affection,  is  not  always 
free  from  selfishness,  a  selfishness  which  is  sometimes  cruel. 
Brethren,  after  these  considerations  we  can  no  longer  make 
it  a  question  whether  religion  is  permitted  to  make  a  man 
happy.  It  is  clear  not  only  that  it  can,  but  that  it  ought ; 
that  if  it  is  true,  it  cannot  but  give  happiness,  and  that  this  is 
one  of  the  principal  evidences  of  its  truth.  But  while  ad- 
mitting this  to  be  its  inevitable  result,  several  will  ask  if  it 
ought  to  announce  it ;  and,  if  it  is  worthy  of  it,  to  begin  by 
offering  it.  Is  not  this,  they  ask,  to  appeal  to  the  least  noble 
part  of  our  nature,  and  to  fix  our  eye  on  the  very  point  from 
which  it  ought  to  be  diverted  ?  Ought  it  not  first  to  speak  of 
holiness,  and  leave  happiness  to  follow  in  its  train  ? 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIANISM.  221 

Those  who  speak  thus,  brethren,  forget  what  they  have  just 
admitted,  namely,  that  happiness  is  necessarily  united  to  holi- 
ness, that  the  tree  has  long  borne  its  fruits,  and  that  the  lives  of 
thousands  of  Christians  have  verified  the  words  of  our  Saviour, 
*'  Blessed  are  those  who  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness ;" 
and  that  this  happiness,  or  at  least  peace,  which  true  Chris- 
tians enjoy,  has  conducted  numbers  towards  the  Gospel  which 
must  give  them  the  same  experience.  So  that  though  the 
Gospel  should  not  speak  of  happiness,  the  happiness  of  Chris- 
tians would  speak  of  it. 

But  to  those  Christians  themselves  whose  happiness  makes 
us  envy  them,  and  who  have  become  so  without  having  seen 
or  heard  other  Christians,  must  not  religion  have  spoken  of 
happiness  ?  We  know  it  is  only  too  common  for  men  when 
they  invent  theories,  moral  or  political,  to  set  out  with  supposing 
man  as  he  ought  to  be  rather  than  as  he  is.  It  seems  to  us, 
brethren,  that  something  better  should  be  expected  from  reli- 
gion, and  that  sound  sense  must,  if  any  where,  exist  in  God. 
Now  what  is  it  that  characterizes  our  actual  condition  ?  It  is 
the  loss  of  any  relish  for  holiness,  but  certainly  not  the  loss  of 
a  relish  for  happiness ;  it  is  not  to  feel  strongly  and  distinctly 
enough  that  happiness  is  inseparable  from  holiness,  but  not, 
certainly  not,  to  feel  strongly  and  distinctly  enough  the  pro- 
found and  unalterable  need  of  being  happy.  This  is  not  a 
sentiment  which  our  fall  has  enfeebled  ;  here  we  are  sure  of 
being  found,  here  we  are  sure  of  being  captivated.  Holiness 
is  the  goal :  and  is  it  from  the  goal  that  religion  must  start? 
The  idea  is  absurd.  By  what  then  can  it  attract  man,  or  se- 
cure his  attachment  without  announcing  happiness  ?  Consider 
well  what  it  is  we  speak  of  when  we  speak  of  religion.  We 
do  not  understand  by  it  a  knowledge  or  sentiment  which  man 
receives  and  brings  with  him  into  the  world  at  his  birth ;  we 
understand  a  covenant  between  God  and  man,  superinduced 
afterwards  in  order  to  repair  the  vice  or  imperfection  of  our 


222  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

natural  condition,  and  fill  up  a  void  in  our  existence.  But 
how  should  avoid  which  God  alone  can  fill  up  not  be  felt? 
And  how  should  this  feeling  not  be  one  of  pain  ?  How  then 
should  not  relifrion  announce  itself  as  a  separation  or  a  rem- 
edy ?  And  if  it  is  a  manifestation  of  the  love  of  God  toward 
us,  and  a  medium  of  this  love,  how  can  it  be  supposed  that 
with  such  a  design  God  addresses  himself*  in  preference  to 
the  least  accessible  part  of  our  being,  and  knocks  in  prefer- 
ence at  the  door  which  we  will  opeji  to  him  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  ?  Is  it  not  far  more  probable  that  his  goodness  will 
make  him  choose  as  a  means  of  penetrating  to  our  heart  that 
door  constantly  and  widely  open  of  which  we  have  spoken — 
the  need  and  the  love  of  happiness  ? 

To  make  this  innocent  attraction  a  ground  of  charge 
against  religion  would  be  truly  strange.  Would  it  be  better 
to  abstain  from  using  the  only  means  which  it  has  at  its  dispo- 
sal, and  in  order  to  procure  suffrages  perfectly  unimpeachable 
to  be  careful  to  conceal  whatever  in  it  is  lovely  and  touch- 
ing ?  Were  you  to  say  so,  I  know  not  whether  you  would 
be  more  severe  on  man  or  on  God  himself  Severe  on  man, 
to  whom  you  seem  to  say,  ''  It  is  of  no  consequence  that  you 
require  to  be  counselled ;  it  matters  not  that  the  whole  crea- 
tion, of  which  you  form  a  part,  and  whose  pains  are  felt  in 
your  bosom,  '  groaneth  and  travaileth,' — It  is  of  no  conse- 
quence that  you  feel  yourselves  deprived  of  true  peace,  and 
for  ever  incapable  of  all  true  joy  ;  your  wants  are  nothing, 
and  your  duties  every  thing, — In  the  first  instance,  receive 
the  law  ;  thereafter  let  the  rest  come  or  not  come  ;  with  this 
religion  has  no  concern."  Severe,  we  said,  to  God  himself, 
to  whom  you  seem  to  say,  "  O  infinite  love,  curb,  restrain 
thyself!  Thou  only  desirest  diffusion  ;  but  learn  contrac- 
tion. Thou  wishest  to  speak  to  man  of  thy  love,  speak  to 
him  only  of  thy  rights  ;  thou  desirest  to  win  him  by  mercy, 
do  not  win  him.    Thou  mightest  inclose  him  in  the  meshes  of 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIAxMSM.  223 

compassion,  allow  him  to  escape.  Thou  wishest  to  touch 
his  feelings,  touch  them  not.  Do  not  offer  him  what  he  asks, 
offer  him  what  he  asks  not.  Infinite  goodness,  be  only  infi- 
nite holiness  !     Love,  be  not  love  !" 

But,  my  dear  hearers,  if  religion  does  not  address  hu- 
manity in  those  words  of  consolation  which  humanity 
expects,  what  will  it  say  ?  What  in  fact  is  a  religion,  or 
what  is  religion?  It  is  consolation.  The  most  complete 
collection  of  the  most  elevated  moral  precepts  is  not  a  reli- 
gion. Morality  only  becomes  a  religion  by  hope.  To  give 
us  a  morality,  even  the  most  perfect,  is  not  to  give  us  a  reli- 
gion. Religion  ought  no  doubt  to  contain  a  pure  morality,  and 
a  perfect  morality  ;  but  morality,  taken  in  itself,  and  confined 
to  itself,  the  more  perfect  it  is,  is  the  less  a  religion.  To 
make  us  better  acquainted  with  the  precepts  of  the  law,  is  only 
to  enlarge  our  responsibility  and  complete  our  distress.  Thus 
God  should  have  spoken  only  to  produce  despair.  It  is  not 
enough  that  religion  thus  offers  no  attraction,  it  must  as  a 
consequence  inspire  terror.  In  fact  you  must  come  to  this, 
you  cannot  stop  half  way.  Not  wishing  it  to  be  amiable, 
you  must  make  it  dreadful. 

Examine  the  condition  of  the  human  race  still  more  at- 
tentively. It  requires  not  merely  to  be  consoled  but  to  be 
reassured.  You  are  aware  that  the  misery  of  man  consists 
not  merely  in  feeling  himself  far  beneath  the  idea  which  he 
forms  of  his  destination ;  it  consists,  moreover,  (though  this 
is  akin  to  the  former,)  it  consists  in  feeling  that  he  is  justly 
and  irrevocably  deprived  of  the  favor  of  the  God  whom  he 
has  offended  ;  in  other  words,  in  being  obliged  to  figure  to 
himself  under  different  forms  (and  here  how  great  the  force 
of  forms,  images,  and  words  !)  his  God  as  an  angry  God 
alienated  from  him  ;  it  consists  in  acknowledging  that  with 
God,  the  sovereign  good,  true  life  and  eternity  will  be  lost; 
in  feeling  himself,  though  alive,  the  prey  of  death ;  in  expe- 


224  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

riencing  here  below  the  gnawings  of  the  worm  that  dieth 
not,  and  the  fire  that  never  shall  be  quenched.  It  is  vain  to 
disguise  or  extenuate  the  fact ;  such  is  the  situation  in  the 
horrible  reality  of  which  conscience  is  continually  placing 
us.  Such  is  the  subject  of  the  first  question  which  man  puts 
to  religion,  and,  not  to  disappoint  his  expectation,  religion 
must  at  the  outset  either  offer  or  promise  reconciliation.  We 
say,  brethren,  that  it  must,  and  that  a  religion  which  does 
not  do  so,  which  does  not  begin  with  this,  is  not  a  religion. 
We  say  that,  supposing  man  not  to  know,  it  would  be  useless 
to  acquaint  him  with  the  truth  in  regard  to  his  destiny  and 
his  duty,  without  having  previously  assured  him  that  God 
receives  him  into  favor,  that  his  life  will  be  judged  with  a 
father's  tenderness,  and  that  the  sins  of  the  past  and  the  im- 
perfections attaching  to  all  his  works  will  not  render  his  ex- 
ertions and  his  zeal  unavailing.  A  true  religion  ought 
therefore  to  be  good  news,  a  Gospel ;  all  religions  have  more 
or  less  pretended  to  be  so. 

Brethren,  we  have  spoken  boldly  in  the  name  of  all ;  we 
have  supposed  this  feeling  of  condemnation  and  this  need  of 
reconciliation  present  in  the  hearts  of  all  who  are  listening 
to  us.  Now  we  admit  that,  if  there  are  any  whose  conscience 
tells,  them  that  they  have  never  been  separated  from  God, 
that  they  have  always  loved  what  he  loves,  and  willed  what 
he  wills ;  if  there  are  any  who  have  never  been  in  arrears 
with  God,  and  (how  do  I  know  ?)  to  whom  God  on  the  con- 
trary is  in  debt ;  in  one  word,  if  there  are  here  men  who  are 
not  men,  men  of  another  race  than  that  of  Adam,  the  argu- 
ment which  we  have  just  employed  is  not  applicable  to  them, 
and  it  is  natural  that  they  should  not  feel  the  force  of  it. 
But  if  their  unalterable  security  has  not  rendered  them  in- 
sensible to  a  situation  which  is  not  theirs,  we  dare  appeal  to 
themselves,  and  ask  them  to  say  whether  this  religion,  which 
cannot  be  theirs,  is  not  such  as  the  rest  of  mankind  require  ; 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIANISM.  225 

and  if  in  the  wonderful  condescension  of  God  which  it  un- 
folds, there  is  nothing  unworthy  of  God  and  unworthy  of 
man.  Ah  !  I  admit  it.  If  the  prospect  opened  to  man  by 
religion  was  that  of  an  earthly  happiness ;  if  God  attracted, 
shall  I  venture  to  say  enticed  him  by  the  allurement  of  carnal 
enjoyment  and  vanity;  if  it  guaranteed  to  him  in  this  world, 
I  will  not  say  pleasures  and  riches,  but  a  peaceful,  pleasant, 
and  honored  existence  ;  if,  even  deferring  the  effect  of  its 
promises  beyond  the  grave,  it  filled  eternity  with  a  worldly 
happiness,  and  transported  earth  to  heaven,  such  a  system 
might  be  so  unworthy  of  man,  (mark  this,  brethren,)  that  he 
would  not  choose  to  have  it.  At  least  none  but  degraded  men 
and  nations  can  to  this  extent  allow  their  wants  to  be  disap- 
pointed, and  their  hopes  materialized.  The  misery  of  man 
is  a  sublime  misery,  and  there  is  something  holy  in  his  suffer- 
ing. What  he  seeks  in  religion  is  heaven  and  eternity,  and, 
under  the  name  of  heaven  and  eternity,  God.  His  heart 
and  his  life  feel  the  want  of  God,  it  is  after  God  that  he 
hungers.  But  were  this  longing  after  God  and  eternity  far 
less  spiritual  than  we  hold  it  to  be ;  were  it  reduced,  as  in 
the  case  of  most  men  it  seems  to  be,  to  a  longing  for  immor-, 
tality  and  the  fear  of  falling  on  their  departure  from  the 
world  into  the  hands  of  an  angry  God,  do  you  consider  even 
this  longing  to  be  unworthy  of  man  ?  Do  you  think  that 
his  disinterestedness  should  go  so  far  as  to  make  him  feel  no 
concern  about  eternal  reprobation  ?  When  you  impose  such 
self-denial,  do  you  not  make  him  more  or  less  than  a  man,  ' 
do  you  not  make  him  a  god  or  a  demon  ?  Is  it  not  even 
probable  that  he  who  would  cheerfully  renounce  all  claim 
to  eternity,  and  all  prospect  of  possessing  God,  would  be  a 
demon  rather  than  a  god  ?  And  are  you  come  the  length  of 
making  it  criminal  in  man  not  to  love  himself  too  much,  but 
to  love  in  general  ? 

The  thing  unworthy  of  man  would  be  not  the  acceptance 
11* 


226  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

of  these  terms,  but  the  rejection  of  them.  There  is  no  merit, 
I  admit,  in  laying  hold  of  an  offered  favor;  and  for  that 
purpose  no  great  effort  seems  requisite ;  but  though  the  con- 
sent merits  no  praise,  do  we  think  that  the  refusal  would  not 
deserve  blame  ?  The  whole  question  is  whether  pardon 
is  really  offered.  If  it  is,  we  are  not  only  infatuated,  we 
are  culpable  in  not  accepting  it.  To  repel  a  favor  offered 
by  God  himself;  to  tell  him  by  the  refusal  either  that  wo  can 
dispense  with  him,  or  that  we  are  strong  enough  to  defy  his 
anger ;  to  tell  him  that  we  will  not  have  him  for  Master, 
Father,  guide,  or  light ;  to  tell  him  when  he  offers  us  the 
only  means  of  union  with  him,  that  we  set  no  value  upon  it ; 
what  is  thisi  brethren,  if  it  is  not  a  crime,  and  the  most 
dreadful  of  crimes  ?  Say,  then,  whatever  you  please  of  the 
selfish  aim  of  the  Christian  life,  how  can  this  aim  be  un- 
worthy of  man  if  its  opposite  would  be  so  very  unworthy  ?* 

But  if  there  is  nothing  unworthy  of  man  in  the  offer  of 
reconciliation,  how  can  there  be  any  thing  in  it  unworthy  of 
God  ?  However,  brethren,  let  us  take  up  this  question  as  if  it 
had  not  been  already  decided  by  the  solution  of  the  former. 

It  is  necessary,  no  doubt,  if  this  offer  be  worthy  of  God, 
that  the  happiness  which  is  offered  us  in  his  name  befitted  to 
unite  us  to  him,  that  it  do  not  concentrate  us  upon  ourselves, 
but  make  us  diffusive  and  communicative  ;  in  one  word,  that 
our  happiness  tend  to  contribute  to  the  happiness  of  all,  and 
the  glory  of  God.     Our  happiness  would  be  unjust,  I   say 

*  "  Art  thou  under  the  tyranny  of  sin,  a  slave  to  vicious  habits,  at 
enmity  with  God,  and  a  skulking  fugitive  from  thy  own  conscience  ?  O 
how  idle  the  dispute,  whether  the  listening  to  the  dictates  of  prudence 
from  providential  and  self-interested  motives  be  virtue  or  merit,  when 
the  not  listening  is  guilt,  misery,  madness,  and  despair  !  The  best,  the 
most  Christianlike  pity  thou  canst  show,  is  to  take  pity  on  thy  own  soul, 
the  best  and  most  acceptable  service  thou  canst  render,  is  to  do  justice 
and  show  mercy  to  thyself." — Coleridge's  Aids  to  Reflection. 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIANISM. 


227 


more,  it  would  be  false,  precarious,  and  ruinous,  if  it  did  not 
take  us  out  of  ourselves,  if  it  did  not  teach  us  to  give  ourselves 
to  all,  if  it  did  not  make  us  in  some  measure  the  prey  of  all ; 
in  one  word,  if  it  did  not  become  love,  and  if  of  this  love 
kindled  in  our  soul,  God  were  not  the  primary  object.  For 
if  we  did  not  love  God,  the  only  being  who  deserves  to  be 
loved  absolutely  and  for  himself,  we  should  not  love  any 
person  with  a  true  love,  a  love  of  charity.  If  we  did  not 
love  God,  we  should  not  love  those  among  men  whom  it  is 
impossible  for  us  to  love  otherwise  than  in  God,  and  because 
of  God.  This  is  well  expressed  by  St.  John  :  "  By  this  we 
know  that  we  love  the  children  of  God,  when  we  love  God  ;" 
(1  John  V.  2  ;)  in  other  words,  we  are  sure  of  truly  loving 
our  brethren,  and  even  our  nearest  friends,  only  when  we 
love  God  ;  or  rather,  we  are  sure  we  do  not  truly  love  our 
brethren,  or  even  our  nearest  friends,  when  we  do  not  love 
God.  In  fine,  if  we  did  not  love  God,  who  is  holiness  itself, 
we  would  not  love  holiness,  we  would  not  love  the  law  of 
God ;  since  the  love  of  God  is  a  vague  unmeaning  term  if 
we  do  not  love  what  is  essential  to  God  and  makes  him  to  be 
God.  Hence  an  indispensable  condition  of  the  happiness 
which  religion  gives,  is  its  disposing  hs  to  love  holiness.  Did 
it  fail  in  this,  it  would,  we  repeat,  be  an  unjust  and  false  happi- 
ness, seeing  it  is  not  just  that  we  should  be  happy  out  of  order  ; 
a  false  happiness,  seeing  that  man  out  of  the  order  for  which 
he  was  created  and  organized,  could  not  be  happy  except  in 
appearance,  and  only  for  a  time. 

Now,  what  can  be  feared,  or  rather,  what  may  not  be 
hoped  for  the  holiness  of  man,  and  consequently  for  the  glory 
of  God,  from  a  religion  which  exhibits  God  as  holy  as  he  is 
lovely,  as  lovely  as  he  is  holy,  and  which,  in  expounding 
the  law  in  all  its  purity  and  all  its  beauty,  takes  from  it  only 
what  is  dreadful  and  overpowering  ?  No  doubt  the  promise 
of  salvation  does  not  and  cannot  do  every  thing,  but  when 


228  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

this  promise  comes  from  the  very  God  from  whom  we  could 
only  expect  a  sentence  of  condemnation,  when  a  benefit  im- 
mense and  unmerited  links  us  by  gratitude  to  a  Being  whose 
eyes  are  too  pure  to  look  upon  sin  without  abhorrence,  will 
this  gratitude,  how  little  capable  soever  we  may  be  of  it, 
have  no  tendency  to  sanctify  ?  And  if  there  were  in  us,  in 
the  very  midst  of  our  sins,  some  longing  for  purity  and 
virtue,  which  should  spring  up  from  time  to  time  in  our 
heart  and  sink  down  again  from  not  being  sustained  by  hope; 
if  a  servile  and  icy  dread  had  till  then  suppressed  the  im- 
pulses of  our  soul  towards  the  spiritual  world  and  the  things 
of  God,  will  not  the  suppression  of  this  fear,  by  the  promise 
of  grace,  make  new  furrows  in  the  soul,  and  deposit  in  them 
the  blessed  seeds  of  love  and  joy  ?  Will  not  the  soul,  thus 
sown  and  prepared  by  consolations  from  on  high,  become  a 
fruitful  soil  in  which  every  divine  plant  will  henceforth  grow 
spontaneously  and  to  perfection  ?  Ah  !  brethren,  if  it  is  so, 
the  promise  of  salvation  introduces  into  our  soul  an  innocent 
and  holy  happiness.  This  happiness  is  worthy  of  God  ;  this 
good  news,  more  than  a  forerunner,  is  an  essential  part  of 
the  truth;  and  the  remainder,  I  mean  the  rule  of  sanctifica- 
tion,  although  very  important  and  well  deserving  of  a  con- 
tinual study,  flows  from  it  spontaneously,  proceeds  from  it 
like  the  branches  from  the  trunk  which  bears  and  nourishes 
them. 

Moreover,  under  what  features  has  this  salvation,  whose 
good  tidings  have  given  it  the  name  of  Gospel,  been  presented 
to  us  ?  We  find  in  the  Gospel,  indeed,  some  sensible  rep- 
resentations of  the  misery  of  the  reprobate ;  but  do  we  find 
in  regard  to  the  happiness  of  the  elect,  any  thing  resembling 
the  coarse  pleasures  of  the  present  time  ?  Beyond  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  afflictions  of  the  world,  (a  temporary  exercise 
which  comes  to  an  end  because  the  trial  is  accomplished,) 
what  do  ye  find  in  this  happiness  of  heaven  ?     Of  what  is  it 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIANISM.  229 

composed  ?  What  is  its  principal  element  and  essential  fea- 
ture ?  Is  it  not  communion  with  God  ?  is  it  not  the  free 
life  of  the  spirit  ?  is  it  not  love  ?  And  is  it  not  under  these 
immaterial  features  that  all  true  Christians  represent  it  to 
themselves  ?  Is  it  not  in  this  character  that  they  desire  it 
and  hope  for  it  ?  Is  it  not  in  the  possession  of  God  that  they 
rejoice  ?  Do  they  aspire  or  lay  claim  to  any  thing  else  ? 
And  even  now,  as  the  object  of  their  hope,  is  heaven  any 
thing  but  love  ?  What,  in  fact,  would  all  the  rest  be  ? 
What  can  be  desired  by  him,  who,  withdrawn  for  ever  from 
the  pains  and  wants  of  life,  knows  himself  to  be  for  ever 
united  to  God  by  the  tie  of  a  mental  communion  ?  Now, 
such  being,  in  a  Christian  point  of  view,  the  character  of 
the  heavenly  happiness  or  of  salvation,  this  happiness  being 
love  itself,  love  being  thus  given  to  love  in  hope  and  prospect, 
how  can  we  reproach  the  Gospel  with  having  compromised 
the  dignity  of  God  by  speaking  to  us  of  happiness? 

After  all  this,  brethren,  we  have  no  objection  to  hold  that 
these  properties  of  the  Gospel  do  not  give  a  sufficient  guaran- 
tee, and  that  all  our  reasonings  being  held  null  and  void,  we 
be  demanded  to  give  facts.  But,  on  our  part,  shall  we  not 
be  permitted  to  demand  from  those  who  set  no  value  on  rea- 
soning, and  yield  only  to  the  evidence  of  facts,  that  when  we 
produce  facts  they  will  be  satisfied  and  desist  from  reasoning, 
and  not  attempt  to  argue  against  what  is,  by  appealing  to 
what  they  think  ought  to  be  ?  Christianity  accepts  the 
question  as  thus  stated.  By  promising  and  offering  happi- 
ness has  it  secured  love  ?  or  rather,  by  offering  happiness, 
has  it  closed  the  soul  against  love  ?  This  is  now  the  whole 
question. 

But,  in  truth,  is  it  a  question  ?  Must  we  now  commence 
a  process  which  was  decided  eighteen  centuries  ago  ?  And 
when  during  the  whole  of  this  time,  friends,  neutrals,  ene- 
mies even,  have  admitted  with  one  voice  that  the  true  Chris- 


230  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

tian  is  essentially  a  man  of  love  and  devotedness ;  when  the 
subliniest  instances  of  self-denial  and  renunciation  must  be 
traced  back  to  Christianity  ;  when  all  the  lives  expended  in 
the  ministry  of  charity  have  been,  without  exception,  Chris- 
tian lives ;  when  a  thousand  institutions,  a  thousand  monu- 
ments, still  present  to  our  eyes  striking  evidence  of  the  mer- 
ciful spirit  which  Jesus  Christ  has  deposited  in  his  religion  ; 
when,  in  order  to  make  the  pure  and  fresh  sap  of  love  cir- 
culate in  the  withered  veins  of  the  social  body,  recourse 
must  uniformly  be  had  to  Christianity — can  it  be  necessary 
for  us  to  prove  that  the  principle  of  happiness  which  it  em- 
ploys, so  far  from  hurting,  turns  to  the  advantage  of  love  ? 
Prove  it !  Should  we  do  so  ?  Are  those  who  require  such 
a  proof,  worthy  of  it  ?  Are  they  not  jesting  with  us  when 
they  say  they  require  it  ?  Should  we  not,  by  complying 
with  their  demand,  be  taking  part  in  this  foolish  jesting,  and 
becoming,  to  a  certain  extent,  accomplices  in  its  strange  in- 
justice ?  Is  not  silence  the  only  suitable  answer,  tlie  only 
one  which  accords  with  the  dignity  of  our  cause  ? 

We  leave  the  answer  to  those  other  enemies  of  Christi- 
anity who  have  been  complaining  so  loudly  and  so  long  that 
Christianity  consists  entirely  of  moi'tifications  and  sacrifices, 
and  by  foolishly  withdrawing  us  from  ourselves,  leaves  us  a 
prey  to  the  first  comer.  These  persons,  brethren,  to  do  them 
justice,  have  drawn  their  accusation  from  facts,  and  facts 
alone  ;  and  the  injustice  of  their  charge  consists  in  their  not 
having  looked  into  the  spirit  of  the  doctrine,  which  would 
have  shown  them  a  secret  and  superabundant  compensation 
for  the  enormous  sacrifices  which  amaze  them,  while  the  in- 
justice of  the  others  consists  in  having  looked  only  at  the 
interior  of  the  doctrine,  the  abstract  religion,  and  taken  no 
account  of  the  external  facts  which  are  the  consequences  of 
the  doctrine.  Is  it  not  just,  brethren,  to  leave  the  first  to  reia 
fute  the  second  ;  and  these,  in  their  turn,  to  refute  the  first  ? 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIANISM.  231 

In  particular,  is  it  not  just  that  tliose  who  charge  the  Chris- 
tian religion  with  selfishness  be  called  upon  to  explain  to 
each  other,  and  afterwards  explain  to  us,  why  there  should 
have  been  so  old  a  clamor  and  so  general  a  charge  against 
the  Christian  religion  of  a  nature  the  very  opposite  of  that 
which  they  bring  against  it  ?  I  admit  that  when  they  have 
solved  the  difficulty  we  shall  be  bound  to  answer  them. 

But  if  the  effects  being  recognized,  if  the  presence  of 
love  in  the  heart  and  the  life  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ 
being  established,  if  the  generous  and  tender  character  of 
Christianity  being  put  out  of  the  question,  the  charge  be  still 
insisted  on,  the  charge  that  Christianity  in  order  to  produce 
these  glorious  and  striking  results  has  recurred  to  this  instru- 
ment of  happiness,  or  personal  interest ;  if  the  scrupulous 
purity,  we  would  say  the  puritanism  of  those  with  whom  we 
aredebating  is  still  ashamed  and  scandalized  at  it,  what  will 
remain  for  us  but  just  to  send  them  away  to  do  better,  what 
will  remain  for  themselves  but  just  to  try  ? 

It  is  vain,  therefore,  to  attempt  to  separate  happiness 
from  virtue,  or,  which  comes  to  the  same  thing,  to  exclude 
the  element  of  happiness  from  religion.  Do  as  we  may,  it 
will  find  a  place,  and  the  only  question  is  what  that  place 
will  be.  Whether  it  will  follow  in"  the  train  of  obedience, 
or  precede  it.  There  is  no  other  alternative.  Mark  this 
well,  brethren  ;  will  you  obey  God  in  order  that  he  may  love 
you,  or  will  you  obey  him  because  he  loves  you  ?  Will  you 
obey  him  in  order  to  be  saved,  or  will  you  obey  because  you 
are  saved  ? 

This  choice  God  has  not  left  to  us.  He  knows  well  that 
if  we  were  to  be  saved  by  obedience,  we  should  never  be 
saved.  This  is  the  reason  why  without  regard  to  our  first 
disobedience,  and  without  waiting  till  we  have  become  obe- 
dient, he  first  loved  us,  came  to  us,  announced  "  Peace  on 
earth,"  gave  free  pardon  to  all,  after  having  pronounced  the 


*232  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

sentence  of  condemnation  upon  all  ;  has  concluded  all  under 
sin,  that  he  may  show  mercy  to  all.  Christ,  the  messenger 
of  these  glad  tidings,  was  also  their  guarantee ;  his  incarna- 
tion, his  sufferings,  the  shedding  of  his  innocent  blood,  have 
stamped  it  with  an  immortal  seal.  A  degraded  race,  which 
from  generation  to  generation  transmitted  the  curse,  and  was 
perpetuated  upon  the  earth  only  to  perpetuate  disorder  and 
rebellion  ;  a  race  which  seemed  to  have  preserved  some 
traces  of  its  primitive  dignity  and  some  remains  of  its  do- 
minion over  creation  only  to  disturb  the  designs  of  God,  and 
by  its  presence  and  conduct  interrupt  the  universal  harmony  ; 
this  unhappy  race  in  the  dark  wilderness  of  its  exile  has 
seen  the  paternal  hand  of  God  extended  toward  it.  On  its 
sunless  horizon  a  bright  and  pure  luminary  has  arisen ;  a 
second  Adam  has  become  the  head  of  a  second  humanity,  in 
order  that  as  in  Adam  all  die,  so  in  Christ  Jesus  all  may  be 
made  alive.  The  Mediator,  the  distant  hope  of  whom  had 
cheered  the  men  of  ancient  times  on  their  passage  to  the 
tomb,  has  come  in  the  fulness  of  the  times  to  accomplish  his 
mysterious  mission,  and  claim  from  the  height  of  the  cross 
the  fulfilment  of  the  divine  promise,  "  Ask  of  me,  and  I 
shall  give  thee  the  heathen  for  thine  inheritance,  and  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  thy  possession."  Ps.  ii.  8. 
The  nations  belong  to  him,  he  to  humanity ;  he  is  prince  and 
pastor,  for  his  sceptre  is  a  crook,  and  his  subjects  are  sheep 
whom  he  feeds  and  carries  in  his  bosom  with  a  tenderness 
as  great  as  the  power  with  which  he  defends,  and  the  author- 
ity with  which  he  governs  them.  His  reign  is  a  reign  of 
persuasion  and  love  ;  he  wishes  none  but  free  subjects,  he 
wishes  only  to  reign  over  hearts  ;  he  acknowledges  for  sub- 
jects those  only  who  are  united  to  him  by  faith,  and  are  de- 
sirous to  be  enlisted  to  him  only  for  peace,  comfort,  joy, 
and  strength.  He  acknowledges  for  subjects  only  those  who, 
acknowledging  themselves  to  be  sinners  devoid  of  all  glory 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIANISM.  233 

before  God,  and  incapable  of  entering  by  their  own  strength 
and  their  own  merits  into  communion  with  the  Father  of 
spirits,  cry  for  grace  and  mercy  at  the  foot  of  his  cross,  and 
expect  nothing  in  earth  or  heaven  except  from  his  powerful 
mediation. 

I  readily  admit  that  man  could  not  have  invented  this 
system,  and  that  it  transcends  our  highest  conceptions  ;  but 
after  all,  brethren,  is  not  the  system  upon  which,  if  we 
abandon  this,  we  fall  back,  I  mean  salvation  by  works,  too 
high  for  human  nature  and  for  every  individual  man  ;  is 
there  an  individual  of  our  species  who  can  embrace  it  seri- 
ously without  embracing  condemnation,  and  follow  it  out 
without  arriving  at  despair  ?  And  on  the  contrary,  does  not 
the  other  system  which  St.  Paul  has  denominated  in  express 
terms  foolishness,  but  the  foolishness  of  God,  give  to  man 
along  with  joy  and  peace  a  strength  that  was  unknown  to 
him  ;  does  it  not  form  in  his  heart  that  which  he  was 
searching  for  in  vain,  and  which  constitutes  all  his  strength, 
that  which  is  by  way  of  eminence  the  work  containing  in 
itself  all  other  works,  I  mean  confidence  in  God  and  love  to 
God  ?  Is  not  this  foolishness  which  inspires  holiness  itself 
reason,  and  on  the  other  hand  is  not  the  reason  which  pro- 
duces neither  holiness  nor  peace  no  better  than  foolishness  ? 
And  what  although  the  element  of  happiness  superabounds 
in  Christianity,  if  this  superabundance  of  happiness  produces 
a  superabundance  of  love  ?  In  short,  which  of  the  two  things 
is  the  more  noble  and  the  more  generous :  to  work  with  a 
view  to  a  reward,  as  in  the  system  of  natural  religion,  or  to 
work  in  return  for  favor  obtained,  in  other  words,  from 
gratitude,  as  in  that  system  of  supernatural  religion  which 
we  term  the  Gospel  ? 

Were  we  to  be  told  that  very  few  accept  these  strange 
and  sublime  conditions,  that  very  few  obey  from  gratitude, 
alas !  we  have  told  ourselves  the  same  thing.     Still  those 


234  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

who  do  obey,  obey  in  Spirit  and  in  truth  ;  and  where  are 
those  who  by  another  principle,  whether  duty  or  fear,  have 
been  brought  to  heartfelt  obedience  ?  Who  is  it  that  obeys, 
if  it  be  not  he  that  loves?  Who  loves,  if  it  be  not  he  who 
believes  himself  to  be  loved  ?  Number  does  not  constitute 
truth,  and  were  there  only  one  individual  upon  the  earth 
who  had  embraced  the  Gospel,  in  that  one  we  should  see 
humanity  restored,  the  party  of  truth,  the  race  of  God. 
The  question  is  not  whether  the  conditions  of  salvation  are 
accepted,  but  whether  they  are  in  fact  conditions  of  salvation, 
and  whether  there  is  any  other  name  upon  the  earth,  any 
other  principle,  any  other  system  by  which  men  may  be 
saved.  Let  us  leave  to  God,  then,  the  mystery  of  his  ways, 
and  the  secret  of  his  counsels;  let  us  no  more  doubt  his  love 
than  his  holiness ;  where  we  cannot  comprehend  let  us  adore 
designs  of  which  the  great  day  will  disclose  to  us  all  the 
excellence ;  and  let  us  content  ourselves  with  accepting  and 
blessing  a  dispensation,  which,  if  not  useful  to  all,  was 
designed  to  be  so  ;  which  in  the  intention  of  God  brings 
"  salvation  to  all  men,"  and  to  which  nothing  is  wanting  to 
make  it  so,  both  in  reality  and  principle,  than  the  will  of 
those  very  persons  in  favor  of  whom  God  conceived  and 
executed  it. 

It  is  now  necessary  to  say,  brethren,  that  if  all  this  dis- 
cussion, which  might  have  appeared  idle  and  vain  in  other 
times,  has  seemed  called  for  in  the  present  day,  it  is  not 
merely  because  some  enemies  of  Christianity,  or,  more  pro- 
perly, some  men  who  do  not  understand  it,  urge  the  com- 
plaint which  we  have  endeavored  to  obviate ;  it  is  also  be- 
cause the  conduct  and  language  of  several  Christians  in  our 
day  gives  too  much  plausibility  and  force  to  the  objection 
founded  on  the  complaint.  Yes,  brethren,  we  say  it  with 
sorrow,  there  has  gradually  risen  up  under  the  very  shade 
of  the  vital  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  and  under  the  form  of  a 


CHRISTIAN    UTILITARIANISM.  235 

severe  and  vigilant  orthodoxy,  a  Christianity  which  is  only  a 
theory  of  happiness  and  a  system  of  personal  safety.  There 
are  Christians  who  have  mistaken  the  starting  point  in  Chris- 
tianity for  the  goal,  and  the  means  for  the  end  ;  and  who,  in- 
stead of  going  from  happiness  to  love,  stop  at  happiness, 
interpreting,  to  the  dishonor  of  Christianity  and  their  own 
shame,  the  declaration  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  "  the  work  of 
God"  (or  the  work  according  to  God)  "  is  to  believe  in  him 
whom  he  hath  sent."  These  are  the  persons  who  by  their 
unjust  happiness  and  presumptuous  peace  offend  the  weak, 
embolden  the  enemies  of  Christianity,  and  give  a  color  to  the 
rashest  and  worst  founded  charge  which  ever  has  been 
brought  against  this  holy  religion. 

We  were  anxious  that  this  deplorable  theology,  this  utili- 
tarianism under  the  disguise  of  religion,  should  not  turn  to 
the  confusion  of  Christianity  ;  and  this  is  the  reason  why  we 
have,  to  the  best  of  our  ability,  shown  on  the  one  hand  that 
the  element  of  happiness  contained  in  the  Gospel,  has  nothing 
contrary  to  love,  which  is  according  to  St.  James,  "  the  end" 
or  sum  "  of  the  commandment;"  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  Christianity,  in  developing  treasures  of  love  in  the  hu- 
man heart,  has  fully  proved  that  it  carried  in  itself  along 
with  happiness,  and  in  happiness  itself,  a  principle  prolific 
in  benevolence  and  charity.  Let  us  do  our  utmost  to  an- 
nounce, reiterate,  and  prove  this  great  truth  ;  let  us  show  in 
Christianity  happiness  and  love  united  and  agreed  ;  but  let 
not  our  example  contradict  our  language  ;  let  it  be  felt  that 
even  in  internal  sorrow  and  tears  those  who  speak  of  the 
happiness  which  Christianity  gives,  have  really  tasted  it; 
let  it  be  felt,  above  all,  that  this  happiness  is  religious,  spi- 
ritual, free  from  selfishness,  pervaded  with  love  ;  let  it  be 
felt  that  a  first  happiness  has  produced  a  second,  that  the 
happiness  of  deliverance  has  given  rise  to  that  of  charity, 
that  they  have  so  melted  down  into  each  other  that  it  has 


236  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

become  impossible  to  draw  the  distinction  between  being 
happy  because  we  have  escaped  from  the  wrath  to  come, 
and  happy  because  we  have  entered  into  communion  with 
Abnighty  God  our  Father,  who  is  at  once  all  happiness  and 
all  love.     Amen. 


JESUS  INVISIBLE. 


'*  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  1  go  away  ;  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Com- 
forter will  not  come  unto  you :  but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send  him 
unto  you." — John  xvi.  7. 

At  the  idea  of  the  persecution  and  sufferings  which  Jesus 
Christ  had  just  set  before  his  disciples  in  endless  perspec- 
tive their  heart  is  overwhelmed.  Amazement  closes  it  against 
love.  Taken  up  entirely  with  themselves,  they  think  not 
of  their  Master.  He  himself,  though  present  and  close  to 
each  of  them,  requires  to  remind  them  of  his  presence, 
and  putting  into  their  mouth  a  question  which  they  them- 
selves ought  to  have  asked,  he  says,  "  None  of  you  asketh 
me,  Whither  goest  thou  ?"  And  then  anticipating,  or  fol- 
lowing their  thought,  he  himself  answers  the  question  which 
he  had  thus  suggested,  or  rather  another  question  which  he 
perceives  to  be  included  in  the  first.  "  Whither  goest  thou" 
has  doubtless  this  meaning  :  Why  do  you  go  away  ?  Why 
do  you  not  remain  in  the  midst  of  us  ?  Why  do  you  leave  us 
alone  upon  the  earth  ?  A  question,  brethren,  implying  great 
trouble  and  anxiety ;  a  question  which  will  appear  very  na- 
tural if  we  can  put  ourselves  in  the  place  of  the  disciples, 


238  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

and  which  our  Lord  answers  even  before  he  has  heard  it, 
apparently  without  any  expression  either  of  reproof  or  sur- 
prise. 

The  disciples  were  not  then  what  they  afterwards  be- 
came. Jesus  Christ  had  constrained  them,  so  to  speak,  to 
believe  in  his  bloody  death  as  an  event  certain,  necessary, 
and  near.  But  Jesus  Christ  was  to  come  forth  from  the 
tomb,  to  re-appear  among  the  living  ;  and  why,  when  he 
had  resumed  possession  of  life,  should  he  not  prolong  his 
stay  in  the  midst  of  them  in  the  bosom  of  his  Church  ?  How 
could  this  Church  dispense  with  him  ?  What  was  to  become 
of  it,  or  rather  must  it  not  be  annihilated  by  the  absence  of 
its  Head  ?  They  find  not  in  themselves  any  answer  to  these 
questions  ;  or,  to  speak  more  properly,  they  do  find  one  ; 
they  find  in  the  feeling  of  their  feebleness  and  unbelief  the. 
most -disheartening  of  answers,  and  they  are  obliged  to  say 
that  if  the  future  prospects  of  the  Church  depend  only  on 
them,  frail  and  shaking  reeds,  the  Church  has  no  future. 

Such  was  their  weakness  that  Jesus  Christ  could  not,  at 
least  at  this  time  and  with  his  own  mouth,  fully  solve  the 
difficulty  which  rises  in  their  breasts.  His  r^ly,  though 
complete  in  itself,  is  to  them  necessarily  incomplete  and 
temporary.  It  calms  and  re-assures  rather  than  gladdens 
and  edifies  them.  The  Master  has  spoken.  That  is  some- 
thing. Tlie  Master  has  explained  that  a  great  advantage  is 
to  result  from  his  departure  ;  this  is  much,  if  they  have  re- 
gard to  the  authority  of  him  who  speaks,  but  it  is  little  for 
persons  in  such  a  situation  as  theirs,  and  (remarkable  cir- 
cumstance !)  before  they  have  received  or  enjoyed  the  com- 
pensation which  is  promised  them,  I  mean  the  mission  of  the 
Comforter,  they  are  not  in  a  condition  either  to  appreciate 
this  compensation,  or  form  an  idea  of  it.  It  is  for  the  Com- 
forter himself  to  make  them  know  the  Comforter;  it  is  for 
the  benefit  promised  to  furnish  them  by  actual  enjoyment 


JESUS    INVISIBLE.  239 

with  the  proper  measure  of  its  value.  The  words  of  Jesus 
are  no  doubt  precious,  precious  as  instruction,  precious  as  a 
prophecy,  the  accomplishment  of  which  will  gloriously  dis- 
play the  infallibility  of  the  divine  Prophet,  but  it  is  at  a  later 
period  that  its  full  value  will  be  felt.  At  the  time  of  deli- 
very it  is  to  the  apostles  like  many  other  prophecies,  "  a 
light  shining  in  a  dark  place." 

Let  us  do  justly,  brethren  ;  all  of  us  would,  like  them, 
have  been  apt  to  ask  Jesus,  "  Lord,  why  goest  thou  away  ? 
Remain  with  us,  Lord !  for  without  thee  we  are  nothing,  and 
far  from  thee  we  perish  !"  And  perhaps  we  are  tempted  to 
ask  even  in  the  present  day ;  perhaps  the  absence  of  Jesus, 
and  of  every  visible  sign  of  his  invisible  presence,  alarms  our 
faith,  and  this  longing  to  see,  which  suggested  to  the  heart 
of  the  disciples  the  mournful  question,  "  Whither  goest  thou  ?" 
perhaps  this  longing  agitates  ourselves,  and  dictates  to  us  on 
different  occasions  many  objections,  it  may  be  many  mur- 
murings,  analogous  to  the  question  put  by  the  disciples. 

Let  us  suppose,  then,  that  the  question  is  ours,  and  that 
the  answer  is  given  to  us,  the  only  difference  being  that  we 
do  not  say  like  the  disciples,  ''  Whither  goest  thou,  Lord?" 
but  "  Lord,  why  hast  thou  gone  away,  and  why  dost  thou  not 
remain  amidst  us  till  the  end  of  time  ?"  Let  us  listen  to  the 
reply  of  Jesus. 

But  no  :  before  Jiis  reply  let  us  listen  to  our  own.  He 
alone  will  tell  us  the  whole  truth,  and  even  any  answer  which 
we  might  give  ourselves  comes  from  him.  We  are  wise 
only  with  his  wisdom.  There  can  be  no  question  of  conceal- 
ing any  thing  from  him;  but  it  may  be  proper  to  see  whether 
before  knowing  the  proper  answer  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the 
question  of  his  disciples,  we  and  they  also  might  not  have 
some  means  of  accounting  for  the  departure  and  disappear- 
ance of  Jesus  Christ. 

Let  us  suppose,  then,  that  the  Son  of  man,  in  condescen- 


\ 

240  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

sion  to  the  weakness  of  his  disciples,  and  our  secret  wish, 
had  consented  after  his  resurrection  to  remain  upon  earth 
until  the  last  day  of  the  last  age  reserved  for  its  existence. 
He  could  not  thus  remain  except  to  die  daily,  or  to  be  for 
ever  triumphant.  On  which  of  these  two  alternatives  must 
we  fix  ?  You  know  too  well,  brethren.  Jesus  Christ,  al- 
ways equally  entitled  to  be  loved,  will  always  be  equally 
hated.  The  same  thirst  for  his  blood  will  exist  in  all  places 
and  at  all  times ;  so  that  were  Jesus  Christ  to  appear  succes- 
sively in  different  countries,  each  of  them  would  in  its  turn  be 
moistened  with  his  precious  blood.  Horrible  to  think,  and 
horrible  to  say  !  Jesus,  each  time  he  sprung  again  from  the 
bosom  of  the  earth,  (become  his  mother,)  would  again  yield 
up  his  innocent  and  hallowed  flesh  to  the  wicked  ;  all  forms 
of  execution  would  alternately  be  tried  on  his  adorable  body; 
all  the  fearful  varieties  of  human  corruption  would  be  exer- 
cised, and,  if  possible,  exhausted  in  this  eternal  parricide,  and 
the  Church  called,  according  to  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  to  fill 
up  what  is  wanting  in  the  sufferings  of  her  Head ;  in  other 
words,  to  represent  and  continue  him  in  this  part  of  his  work, 
the  Church  would  suffer  with  him,  unless  indeed  she  were, 
as  the  example  of  the  first  disciples  might  lead  us  to  suppose, 
to  flee  far  from  his  cross,  leaving  there  at  most  some  St. 
John  to  whom  Jesus,  more  a  stranger  upon  the  earth  than 
before,  would  not  be  able  to  give  the  charge  of  another 
Mary. 

If  it  accords  with  piety  to  believe  that  the  Son  of  God 
died  once,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  if  that  is  the  very  basis  and 
foundation  of  the  mystery  of  godliness,  it  is  impious  to  believe 
that  the  Son  of  God  could  more  than  once  be  clothed  with 
mortal  flesh,  and  that  the  blessed  seed  of  the  woman  was 
more  than  once  to  allow  his  heel  to  be  bruised  by  the  angel 
of  darkness.  Let  us  hasten  then  to  reject  this  first  alterna- 
tive, though  the  most  probable  and  the  only  one  admissible. 


JESUS    INVISIBLE.  241 

and  Jesus,  as  we  have  supposed,  continuing  to  honor  the 
earth  with  his  presence,  let  us  conceive  that,  instead  of  en- 
during an  eternal  passion,  he  is  to  enjoy  an  everlasting 
triumph. 

He  has  conquered  ;  while  living  and  clothed  with  our 
humanity,  he  has  put  infidelity  completely  to  flight.  The 
hosannah  of  some  hundreds  of  Israelites  on  the  road  to  Je- 
rusalem has  become  the  cry  of  all  nations.  Jesus  reigns ; 
he  is  the  King  of  all  the  earth  ;  he  is  the  King  of  kings.  His 
peaceful  dominion  is  absolute.  He  has  no  more  enemies,  no 
more  rivals,  and  what  has  been  emphatically  said  in  the 
Jewish  book  of  an  earthly  king  is  strictly  true  of  Jesus  : 
"  The  earth  is  silent  before  him."  His  kingdom,  whatever 
he  may  have  said  to  the  contrary,  is  of  this  world.  Still  this 
kingdom,  glorious  as  it  appears,  is  but  a  place  of  exile.  For 
if  humanity  before  it  attains  to  glory  in  the  heavenly  places 
is  an  exile  for  the  just,  how  much  more  must  it  be  so  for  the 
Prince  of  the  just  ?  Jesus  Christ  is  not  in  his  proper  place,  and 
therefore  methinks  I  hear  Him  exclaim  as  in  the  days  of  his 
ministry,  "  How  long  shall  1  be  with  you  ?"  The  subjects 
of  this  King  of  the  world  have  here  an  advantage  over  him, 
and  it  is  found,  though  in  contradiction  to  the  very  words  of 
Jesus,  that  the  servant  is  more  than  his  Master.  For  Jesus 
Christ  having  suffered  once,  what  can  those  around  him  have 
to  suffer  ?  A  single  look  from  him  crowns  them  with  glory ; 
to  have  been  seen  and  noticed  by  him,  to  have  received  from 
him  an  order,  a  question,  a  sign  merely,  is  enough  to  be  in 
the  eyes  of  all  other  men  something  more  than  a  king ;  fidel- 
ity always  recompensed,  always  sure  of  being  applauded,  no 
longer  costs  any  thing ;  the  idea,  and  even  the  name  of  diso^ 
bedience  have  disappeared  from  all  minds ;  there  is  no  long- 
er, on  the  part  of  the  friends  of  Jesus,  either  difficulty  to  be 
surmounted  or  struggle  to  be  maintained.  It  is  no  longer  by 
fire  that  men  are  saved,  nor  by  much  tribulation  that  they 
12 


242  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

enter  into  glory.  The  sacrifice  is  no  longer  salted  with  salt, 
or  rather,  there  is  no  longer  a  victim.  Religion  is  no  longer 
a  sacrifice ;  the  blessing  of  the  narrow  way,  and  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  taken  by  violence,  are  henceforth  only  empty 
sounds.  After  having  asked  what  Jesus  Christ  is  doing  here 
below,  it  only  remains  to  ask  what  his  disciples  are  doing, 
and  why,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  earth  is  not  already  trans- 
formed into  heaven  ? 

Such  are  the  replies  which  the  most  superficial  know- 
ledge of  the  Gospel  at  once  suggests.  Let  us  now  listen  to 
Jesus  Christ.  His  reply  alone  is  complete,  and  goes  to  the 
very  bottom  of  the  question.  His  answer  alone  can  be  called 
an  answer.  The  question  of  the  disciples  had  reference  to 
themselves.  "  Why  dost  thou  go  away  ?"  meant,  Why  dost 
thou  leave  us  alone  ?  what  will  become  of  us  without  thee  ? 
This  is  only  part  of  the  question  which  we  have  not  already 
answered.  We  have  omitted  to  place  ourselves  in  the 
position  of  the  disciples.  The  first  thing  which  Jesus  Christ 
does  is  to  place  himself  in  it,  as  is  clearly  shown  by  the  very 
first  words  of  his  reply ;  '•'  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go 
away."  Let  us  see  in  what  this  expediency  consists ;  an 
expediency  not  confined  to  the  first  disciples,  but  applicable 
to  our  case  also. 

"  If  I  go  not  away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto 
you  ;  but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send  him  unto  you." 

Remain  with  Us,  Lord,  and  we  will  be  comforted.  Such, 
brethren,  would  perhaps  have  been  our  answer;  for  we 
indeed  feel  a  general  need  of  consolation.  Alas !  in  their 
unhappiest  moments  it  is  for  being  alive  and  existing  that 
-many  would  wish  to  be  consoled.  But  who  can  console 
better  than  Jesus  ?  Jesus  absent  is  only  one  misery  more, 
and  who  can  console  us  for  the  absence  of  Jesus  ? 

Jesus  might  have  answered.  Are  you  consoled  ?  does  my 
presence  suffice  you  ?  is  the  void  of  your  heart  filled  ?  ^g 


JESUS    INVISIBLE.  243 

the  disquietude  of  your  spirit  calmed?  have  you  peace? 
No  ;  and  yet  I  am  in  the  midst  of  you.  You  can  every  day 
see  me,  speak  to  me,  and  hear  me,  and  after  your  manner 
you  love  me  ;  how  is  it,  then,  that  while  I  am  alive  and 
present,  something  within  you  still  cries  for  peace  and  com- 
fort ?  Thus  it  appears  you  still  require  to  ask,  still  to 
receive  the  Comforter. 

Here  the  words  following  the  text  remind  us  that  we 
must  not  give  a  strict  interpretation  to  the  term  Comforter. 
The  comfort  in  question  is  not  merely  that  which  compen- 
sates for  a  lost  good,  or  makes  it  be  forgotten.  It  is  that 
which  puts  an  end  to  the  soul's  solitariness,  unites  it  to  its 
object  and  its  end,  and  puts  it  in  possession  of  its  true  good. 
It  implies  all  the  light,  strength,  and  life,  of  which  it  is 
susceptible  ;  new  eyes,  a  new  heart,  a  second  birth  ;  the  om- 
nipotence of  God  in  the  feebleness  of  man.  The  Comforter 
is  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  signs  or  effects  of  his  presence  are  numerous  and 
varied.  But  as  the  object  is  to  prove  that  the  departure  of 
Jesus  is  the  condition  of  this  Supreme  grace,  and  that  it  is 
necessary  for  him  (remarkable  circumstance  !)  to  go  away  in 
order  to  give  place  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  let  us  ascend  from 
mere  particular  acts  of  grace  which  may  seem  to  be  com- 
patible with  the  personal  presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  the 
more  general  acts  which  are  the  principle  and  source  of  all 
the  rest.  We  shall  then  have  no  difficulty  in  understanding 
how  these,  and  consequently  all  others,  could  only  be  formed 
and  developed  after  the  departure  of  the  Son  of  man,  and  we 
will  conclude  with  saying  to  this  Divine  friend,  Yes,  Lord, 
thy  departure  was  necessary ;  it  has  been  good  for  us  that 
thou  didst  go  away. 

Two  consolations  of  the  Comforter,  two  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  compose  the  whole  new  man.  The  one  is  faith ;  the 
other  is  that  love  in  the  Spirit  of  which  St.  Paul  has  said  that 


244  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

it  gives  life.     Jesus  Christ  is  the  object  of  both,  but  it  is  on 
condition  of  becoming  invisible  to  us. 

The  first  of  the  gifts  of  the  new  covenant  is  faith.  The 
property  of  faith  is  to  attach  itself  before  all  and  above  all 
to  what  God  has  said,  be  it  conamand,  instruction,  or  promise, 
and  whether  written  on  some  material  substance  or  engraven 
on  the  tablet  of  our  heart.  To  believe  is  to  repose  entirely 
on  the  infallibility  and  faithfulness  of  God  ;  it  is  to  place  his 
testimony  above  all  kinds  of  certainty  or  guarantee ;  it  is  to 
regard  every  word  proceeding  from  his  mouth  as  more 
substantial  and  real  than  the  reality  itself;  it  is  in  practice 
to  regard  duty  in  the  form  in  which  God  has  enjoined  it  as 
the  clearest  and  most  imperative  of  all  obligations ;  it  is, 
consequently,  to  go  forward  with  unflinching  eye,  and  meet 
coming  events  as  we  would  meet  God  himself;  it  is  not  to 
ask  for  sight,  but  to  consider  sight  either  as  the  special  re- 
compense of  faith,  or  as  a  merciful  solace  which  God,  when 
he  deems  it  necessary,  may  concede  to  our  weakness ;  it  is, 
in  terms  still  more  general,  to  live  in  the  Spirit,  which  is  the 
best  part  of  ourselves ;  to  renounce  the  tyrannical  domina- 
tion of  the  senses,  and  uniformly  look  to  the  foundation,  the 
very  essence  of  the  truth,  instead  of  looking  to  external 
accidents  or  signs';  it  is  to  prefer  the  invisible,  which  is 
eternal,  to  the  visible,  which  passes  away,  and  the  possession 
of  the  sovereign  good  to  the  sensible  signs  of  its  presence ; 
in  fine,  in  regard  to  what  especially  concerns  Jesus  Christ, 
it  i^  to  bless  God  that  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  that 
eternal  Wisdom  dwelt  with  the  children  of  men,  but  not  to 
regard  Jesus  Christ,  although  perfect  man,  as  an  ordinary 
individual,  whose  presence  is  indissolubly  attached  to  the 
body  which  represents  him,  as  if  he  would  be  less  present, 
less  near,  and  less  united  to  us  when  our  eyes  should  cease 
to  behold  him.  Now,  such  was  the  disposition  of  the  dis- 
piples,  and  such,  brethren,  is  human  nature  in  general,  that 


JESUS    INVISIBLE.  245 

had  Jesus  Christ  remained  upon  the  earth,  faith,  the  divine 
principle  of  a  new  life,  would  have  remained  for  ever  in  an 
infant  state.  Its  case  would  have  been  that  of  a  young  bird 
whose  parent  will  not  permit  it  to  try  its  wings.  Men  would 
have  reposed  on  the  corporeal  presence  of  Christ ;  not  upon 
his  spiritual,  which  is  his  real  presence.  Even  with  a 
Jesus  Christ,  poor  and  humble,  we  would  have  walked  by 
sight ;  the  man  would  have  obscured  the  God  ;  the  pure 
idea  would  never  have  been  entirely  disengaged  from  the 
external  fact ;  all  the  thoughts  of  the  Christian  would  have 
remained  contracted  and  temporal ;  never  would  he  have 
risen  to  that  glorious  liberty  of  the  spirit  which  was  to  be  the 
glory  of  the  Gospel  economy.  In  fine,  the  natural  weakness 
of  the  disciples  would  have  made  them  at  every  moment  fall 
back  upon  this  visible  and  present  Jesus,  who  behooved,  as 
such,  to  suffice  for  all  our  wants,  and  whose  presence  must 
therefore  have  made  our  state  of  minority  perpetual.  In 
regard  to  the  present  day,  moreover,  it  would  not  be  we  who 
believed,  but  he  who  believed  for  us,  who  would  live  for  us, 
and  be  the  Christian  while  there  were  no  Christians.  The 
magnificent  developments  of  the  Christian  Church  would 
thus  be  strangled  in  the  birth  ;  or,  to  speak  more  properly, 
there  would  be  no  Christian  Church ;  if  by  the  Church  we 
mean  the  assembly  of  those  who  walk  by  faith,  and  live  in 
the  Spirit. 

After  faith,  I  have  named  love  in  the  Spirit.  This  is  the 
second  characteristic  of  the  new  man.  He  loves ;  but  the 
essential  difference  in  this  respect  between  him  and  other  men 
is,  that  he  loves  spiritually.  All  human  afTection  is  carnal  in 
its  principle.  The  soul,  which  is  of  the  earth,  is  the  seat  of 
this  love ;  it  does  not  go  the  length  of  the  spirit,  which  is  the 
sense  of  divine  things.  To  love  spiritually,  is  to  love  as 
God  loves  and  wishes  to  be  loved.  All  in  love  that  is  only 
nature,  instinct,  taste,  self-complacency,  all  that  in  love  is 


246  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

made  in  the  image  of  the  world  and  of  time,  disappears  or  is 
subordinate.  Love,  purified  and  made  divine,  rises  and 
attaches  itself  to  what  is  invisible  and  immortal ;  it  becomes 
at  once  more  tender  and  more  holy,  more  intimate  and  more 
respectful ;  it  loves  God  in  every  soul,  and  loves  every  soul 
in  God.  The  believer  who  sees  all  things  with  the  very  eye 
of  God,  loves,  if  we  dare  so  express  it,  with  the  very  heart 
of  God.  And,  to  quote  an  example  which  brings  us  near 
our  subject,  almost  all  the  world  loves  Jesus.  Even  the  en- 
emies of  Christianity  have  a  kind  of  love  for  Jesus.  How  is 
it  possible  not  to  love  him  who  was  meek  and  lowly  in  heart ; 
who  loved  little  children,  and  loved  the  poor ;  who  chose  to 
lead  their  life,  and  used  his  power  only  to  succor  and  bless  ? 
In  fine,  how  is  it  possible  not  to  love  him  whose  gentle  name, 
for  the  eighteen  centuries  during  which  it  has  been  pro- 
nounced, awakens  in  all  minds  ideas  of  clemency  and  peace, 
justice  and  mercy  ?  But  none  of  these  men  of  the  world, 
who  after  their  manner  love  Jesus  Christ,  could  have  more 
love  for  him  than  the  son  of  Jonas ;  and  do  we  not  know 
that  Jesus  deserved  to  be  loved  otherwise  than  he  was  by  St. 
Peter ;  that  though  doubtless  affected  by  his  simple-hearted 
attachment,  he  however  repulsed  it,  or  at  least  restrained  it ; 
and  felt  indignant  at  this  disciple  when  he  was  unwilling 
that  his  Master  should  taste  of  death  ?  The  affection  of 
Peter  was  not  spiritual ;  that  of  the  world  for  Jesus  is,  if 
possible,  still  less  so.  It  is  a  human  attachment  which  Jesus 
does  not  count  sufficient,  and  which  he  cannot  accept ;  for 
this  attachment  does  not  contain  any  of  the  principles  of  the 
new  life  which  he  came  to  confer  upon  men,  no  spark  of  that 
fire  which  he  hastened  to  kindle  on  the  earth.  This  attach- 
ment does  not  lead  to  God.  And  how  should  it  lead  those 
whom,  in  the  day  when  Divine  wrath  was  threatened  and 
pardon  offered,  it  could  not  lead  to  the  foot  of  the  cross?  But 
this  attachment  remained  human  so  lonoj  as  Jesus  himself 


JESUS    INVISIBLE.  247 

remained  in  a  human  condition.  It  could  not  take  wings 
and  fly  away  into  heaven  till  Jesus  himself  should  have 
ascended.  Till  then,  Christ  was  only  a  person,  and  not  the 
way,  the  truth,  and  the  life.  He  was  not  loved  as  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life  are  loved  ;  but  loved  as  a  person  is 
loved.  The  visible,  corporeal,  limited  person,  behooved  to 
disappear,  in  order  to  make  room  for  the  idea  which  it  repre- 
sented, and  at  the  same  time  concealed.  It  was  necessary 
that  the  love  of  Christ  should  not  be  liable  in  any  way  to 
division  or  change.  In  one  word,  it  was  necessary  that  in 
Christ  men  should  truly  love  Christ.  Human  weakness  in 
some  measure  demanded  this  salutary  privation  of  Christ ;  a 
privation  resembling  that  which  the  child  suffers  when  the 
milk  of  its  mother  is  withheld,  in  order  to  accustom  it  to 
more  solid  nourishment.  The  disciples  at  first  did  not  under- 
stand this  necessity,  and  how  should  they  have  understood  it  ? 
But  shortly  after  they  saw  it  as  if  it  had  been  transparent. 
"  I  know  no  man  after  the  flesh  ;"  exclaims  the  Apostle  of  the 
Gentiles,  "  yea,  though  I  have  known  Christ  after  the  flesh, 
yet  now  henceforth  know  I  him  no  more."  Do  you  hear  ? 
He  congratulates  himself  on  the  fact,  and  glories  in  it. 
Another  man  would  have  gloried  of  having  seen  Christ.  St. 
Paul,  who  probably  had  seen  him,  sets  no  value  on  his  bodily 
presence.  He  considers  it  far  more  important  to  inform  us 
that  he  does  not  know  him  according  to  the  flesh  ;  and  this, 
doubtless,  in  order  that  he  might  teach  us  also  to  know  and 
love  him,  not  in  that  bodily  way,  but  spiritually. 

If  faith  and  spiritual  affection  are  the  life  of  the  Church, 
it  was  for  the  advantage  of  the  Church  that  Jesus,  instead  of 
remaining  in  the  midst  of  her,  should  go  away.  This  has 
been  well  proved  by  fact.  Where  was  the  Church  before 
the  departure  of  Jesus  ?  Nowhere  ;  not  even  in  the  bosom 
of  that  college  of  Apostles  who  we  have  reason  to  believe 
knew  Jesus  far  less,  and  loved  him  less   completely  than  a 


248  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

poor  Christian  peasant  now  k'^ows  and  loves  him.  If,  as  we 
are  too  naturally  inclined  to  believe,  corporeal  presence  is 
of  great  moment,  and  far  superior  to  remembrance,  the 
Apostles,  having  Jesus  in  the  midst  of  them,  must  have  been 
stronger  than  the  Apostles  separated  from  Jesus.  And  then 
we  ought  not  to  forget  that  the  Spirit  (for  we  are  speaking  of 
ihe  Spirit,)  had  not  been  given  to  Jesus  by  measure,  and  that 
he  had  full  power  to  take  of  his  own,  and  to  give  to  his 
friends.  Why  did  he  not  do  so  ?  Why  had  his  lessons  less 
effect  on  the  Apostles  than  those  of  the  Apostles  themselves 
afterwards  had  on  others?  Why  was  not  his  mere  presence 
equivalent  to  an  abundant  and  perpetual  effusion  of  the  gifts 
of  the  Comforter  ?  Why  is  it  that  we  may  say  of  Jesus 
what  at  a  later  period  was  said  of  St.  Paul,  "His  bodily 
presence  is  weak,  but  his  letters  are  powerful."  For,  indeed, 
the  facts  cannot  be  disputed.  Before  the  departure  of  Jesus 
Christ  there  is  no  Church,  but  there  is  one  immediately  after. 
Those  men  who  after  a  long  residence  with  their  Master, 
put  questions  to  him,  and  start  doubts  which  almost  make  us 
blush  for  them,  are  after  his  departure  enlightened,  intelli- 
gent, resolute  men.  This  Church,  in  which  he  leaves  only 
his  remembrance,  and  in  which  the  visible  signs  of  his  power 
lasted  only  a  very  short  time,  still  subsists,  and  even  now, 
amid  the  decline  of  all  belief  and  the  overthrow  of  all 
systems,  is  the  only  thing  which  has  strength,  life,  and  a 
future.  It  is  at  least  evident  that  the  existence  of  the  Church 
did  not  depend  on  the  visible  presence  of  its  Head,  and  Jesus 
knew  well  what  he  was  saying  when  he  declared  to  his 
disciples^ that  it  was  expedient  for  them  that  he  should 
go  away.  "  What !  shall  we  suffer  less  ?  Shall  we  be  less 
despised  ?  Will  our  task  be  more  easy  ?"  Methinks  I  hear 
them  putting  these  questions,  which,  however,  Jesus  had 
already  answered  by  anticipation.  So  far  from  suffering  less 
they  were  to  suffer  much  more,  and  suffer  with  joy.     Such 


JESUS    INVISIBLE.  249 

is  the  advantage  which  they  derived  from  their  Master's 
departure.  Facts  thus  afford  a  striking  confirmation  of  what 
our  Saviour  foresaw,  and  prove  that  his  departure  was  ex- 
pedient. 

But  it  is  said  that  we  suppress  the  miracle  of  Pentecost. 
We  do  not  suppress  it.  Then  it  is  said  we  overlook  the 
meaning  of  the  words,  "I  will  send  you  another  Comforter." 
We  do  not  overlook  it.  We  have  not  pretended  that  God  is 
not  the  Master  of  his  gifts,  that  he  cannot  withhold  them,  and 
that  this  one  has  no  date.  We  believe  that  the  manifestation 
of  divine  power  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  necessary,  and 
that  nothing  superfluous  was  then  done  ;  for  the  wonderful 
magnificence  of  God  always  restricts  itself  to  what  is  neces- 
sary. But  we  have  an  important  observation  to  make;  it  is, 
that  God  never  forces  any  thing,  never  attacks  our  liberty, 
and  that  his  grace  is  nothing  but  an  eloquence  altogether 
divine,  a  spirit  speaking  to  a  spirit,  the  Spirit  of  God  to  the 
spirit  of  man.  He  knocks  at  the  door,  but  does  not  force  it ; 
he  knows  too  well  how  to  make  it  open.  Though  every 
thing  is  mysterious,  there  is  nothing  magical  in  the  work  of 
conversion  ;  the  laws  of  our  nature  are  observed,  and  we 
cease  not  for  one  instant  to  be  men.  We  apply  this  to  the 
great  revolution  which  took  place  in  the  heart  of  the  dis- 
ciples. It  was  the  work  of  God,  but  this  work  God  had 
himself  prepared.  God  had  rendered  it  naturally  possible, 
by  withdrawing  his  Son  from  the  earth  and  reducing  his 
disciples  to  mere  faith  and  love.  From  him  alone  could 
they  receive  what  they  in  fact  received,  but  they  could  not 
receive  it  before  their  Master  had  exchanged  his  residence 
upon  earth  for  the  mansions  of  heaven :  then  only  could 
their  human  confidence  become  faith,  their  human  affection 
become  love  in  the  Spirit.  This  is  all  that  we  wished  to 
establish,  and  we  think  that  our  trouble  has  been  well 
bestowed. 

12* 


250  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

The  view  of  Christ  risen,  was  decisive  alike  in  regard 
to  the  calling  of  the  disciples,  and  their  future  prospects. 
Without  this  view,  nothing  is  possible  ;  and  the  Lord's  tomb, 
empty  though  his  friends  knew  it  not,  buried  for  ever  both 
their  hope  and  the  Church.  This  event  may  suffice  to  ex- 
plain their  joy,  their  first  ardor  and  devotedness.  But  let 
us  not  lose  sight  of  the  ideas  which  have  been  occupying 
our  attention.  What  is  Christianity  when  realized  in  the 
heart,  but  just  the  triumph  of  the  invisible  over  the  visible, 
and  the  reign  of  faith  ?  What  is  the  new  life  which  attaches 
itself  to  this  principle,  but  just  a  love  superior  by  its  purity 
and  spiritual  character  to  all  earthly  loves  ?  The  only  ques- 
tion is,  whether  the  germ  of  these  two  virtues,  which  consti- 
tute the  whole  of  Christianity,  could  have  been  developed  in 
a  Church  in  which  Jesus  should  have  been  personally  present, 
even  to  the  end  of  the  world  ?  We  have  tried  to  prove  the 
contrary,  and  our  only  remaining  question  is:  If  this  is  not 
the  meaning  of  our  Lord's  words,  what  do  they  mean  ? 
Apart  from  those  ideas,  how  can  we  understand  that  it  would 
have  been  advantageous  for  the  disciples  to  see  their  Master 
go  away,  and  that  it  can  be  advantageous  to  us  to  be  depriv- 
ed of  his  presence  ?  Without  dwelling  on  the  fact  that  the 
earth  could  not  retain  Jesus  Christ  beyond  the  term  fixed  by 
eternal  prescience,  do  we  not  perceive  that  his  presence 
prolonged,  (we  mean  his  corporeal  presence,)  might  be  an 
obstacle  to  the  accomplishment  of  some  of  the  ends  for  which 
he  had  come  in  the  flesh  ?  Was  not  his  departure  the  na- 
tural signal  for  the  advent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ?  And  was  it 
not  when  the  earth  should  possess  spiritual  men,  who  are  the 
people  of  the  new  covenant,  when  the  works  of  the  Spirit 
should  be  manifest,  and  its  fruits  abundant  on  the  earth,  that 
this  same  Spirit  should  be  able,  in  the  words  of  our  Saviour, 
to  convince  the  world  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judg- 
ment ?     We  leave  you,  brethren,  to  answer  these  questions, 


JESUS    INVISIBLE.  251 

being  impatient  to  arrive  at  the  practical  lessons  which  flow, 
as  it  were,  spontaneously  from  our  text. 

Could  we  venture  to  maintain,  brethren,  that  is  was  good 
for  the  disciples  that  Christ  should  go  away,  and  that  what 
was  necessary  and  expedient  for  them  is  useless  and  bad  for 
us  ?  None  of  us  certainly  will  say  so.  It  is  too  evident 
that  the  situation,  the  wants,  are  still  the  same,  and  that  we 
cannot  any  more  then  the  Apostles  dispense  with  the  painful 
privation  which  their  Master  imposed  on  then. 

No  Christian  whoever  consents  to  it  willingly.  The  re- 
solution to  do  so  depends  on  the  measure  of  his  spirituality,  in 
other  words,  in  proportion  as  Jesus  Christ  is  possessed  by  the 
heart,  is  the  distinctness  of  vision  belonging  to  the  eye  of  faith. 
But  nothing  is  more  universal  or  more  natural  than  regret 
for  not  having  seen  Jesus  Christ,  than  the  desire  of  one  day 
seeing  him,  I  would  almost  say  a  feeling  of  envy  in  regard 
to  the  privileged  persons  who  beheld  him  in  the  form  of  a 
servant.  Forgetting  how  weak  these  persons  were  during 
the  lifetime  of  their  Master,  and  that  all  their  strength  dates 
from  a  period  when  their  divine  Head  was  no  longer  present 
on  the  earth,  excepting  by  his  Spirit,  many  imagine  that 
they  could  do  all  with  Jesus  Christ  were  he  to  become 
visible,  that  there  would  then  be  neither  doubt  nor  fear,  that 
tliey  would  thenceforth  be  all  ardor  for  the  service  of  their 
great  Master.  That  on  a  first  impression  man  should  think 
and  speak  thus,  is  conceivable,  and  may  be  pardoned ;  but 
after  reflection  how  can  they  continue  to  use  this  language  ? 
and  when  they  do  use  it,  how  far  must  they  be  from  a  full 
understanding  of  the  Gospel  ! 

What  is  the  human  body  ?  A  living  statue.  The  body 
is  an  image,  a  memorial  of  the  existence  and  presence  of  a 
moral  being,  to  which  through  the  body,  so  to  speak,  are  ad- 
dressed all  the  feelings  which  this  being  can  inspire.  That 
the  soul  never  is  without  the  body,  and  that  their  indissolu- 


252  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

ble  union  is  an  essential  condition,  an  ineffaceable  character- 
istic of  human  nature,  we  entertain  no  doubt,  and  we  have 
even  the  sanction  of  the  Gospel  itself,  which  does  not  speak  of 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  as  philosophers  do,  but  of  the  re- 
surrection of  the  flesh.  This  flesh,  however,  this  organiza- 
tion, though  necessary  to  enable  man  to  manifest  himself  and 
filfil  his  destiny,  does  not  constitute  the  man.  This  we  all 
admit  when  we  refuse  to  estimate  a  man's  worth  by  his 
body,  or  any  thing  apparently  dependent  on  his  body,  and 
make  it  wholly  depend  on  his  intellect  and  will.  How  can 
the  element  which  we  refuse  to  take  into  account  in  the 
valuation  be  the  man  himself,  the  whole  man?  On  the 
other  hand,  is  not  the  man,  the  whole  man,  in  that  intellect 
and  will,  which  alone  we  introduce  into  the  account  ? 

Moreover,  in  our  attachments  we  rise  superior  to  the  im- 
pressions which  body  can  produce  upon  body ;  the  more  we 
rise  (if  I  may  so  express  it)  above  the  statue  to  the  man 
whom  it  represents,  the  more  we  feel  satisfied  with  ourselves. 
An  affection  on  which  neither  the  external  decay  of  the  ob- 
ject loved,  nor  its  absence,  nor  death,  would  have  any  pow- 
er, such  an  affection  would  justly  be  entitled  to  the  highest 
honor.  It  would  not,  I  admit,  be  love  in  the  Spirit  in  the 
gospel  acceptation,  but  nothing  would  more  strongly  resem- 
ble it,  nothing  be  more  proper  to  give  the  idea  of  it,  or  even 
according  to  circumstances  originate  the  desire  or  presenti- 
ment of  it. 

If  any  being  should  be  loved  purely,  it  is  undoubtedly  the 
Son  of  God.  The  worship  in  spirit,  which  he  has  recom- 
mended and  rendered  possible,  is  nothing  less  than  the  spi- 
ritual adoration  addressed  to  the  Spirit.  If  the  Son  of  God 
appeared  in  the  flesh,  it  was  not  to  make  us  adore  his  flesh 
or  corporeal  presence,  but  to  dwell  among  us,  to  be  man 
ike  us,  to  lead  a  human  life,  and  submit  to  death.  He  has 
given  this  as  a  support  to  our  love ;  but  our  love  should  at- 


JESUS    INVISIBLE.  253 

tach  itself  to  that  in  him  which  thinks,  invites,  and  loves.  If 
it  is  not  eternal  truth  and  the  eternal  God  that  we  love  in 
Jesus  Christ,  we  do  not  yet  love  him  as  he  desires  to  be 
loved. 

But  since  we  are  at  this  moment  considering  not  so  much 
principles  as  consequences,  let  us  reply  to  those  who  ex- 
claim, "  O  how  strong  we  would  be  if  we  could  only  see  Je- 
sus Christ !"  Alas !  how  many  saw  him,  saw  him  at  full 
leisure,  and  remained  weak  !  So  would  it  be  with  you, 
brethren,  were  Jesus  Christ  to  appear  and  converse  with 
you,  if  he  did  not  at  the  same  time  communicate  the  Holy 
Spirit,  which,  as  you  know,  was  given  to  the  first  disciples 
only  under  the  condition  of  his  own  absence.  No  doubt  it 
was  a  high  honor,  as  well  as  a  great  comfort  to  have  seen  the 
Son  of  man  under  the  form  of  a  servant,  which  is  the  foun- 
dation of  his  own  glory.  The  first  Apostles  had  so  seen  him  ; 
it  was  necessary  for  the  execution  of  the  apostolate ;  and 
we  hear  St.  Paul,  when  misapprehended  by  a  portion  of  the 
primitive  Church,  exclaiming,  ^'  Have  not  I  too  seen  Jesus 
Christ  ?"  But  that  has  nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  to  do 
with  the  question  which  we  are  considering.  The  question 
is  this :  The  Spirit  having  been  able  to  supply  the  place  of 
Christ,  and  complete  his  work,  could  Christ,  by  his  presence, 
have  supplied  the  place  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ?  Could  his  pre- 
sence produce  in  us  what  the  Holy  Spirit  might  not  have 
produced  in  us,  or  could  not  produce  ?  Nothing,  absolutely 
nothing,  authorizes  us  to  think  so.  Any  analogy  would  be 
deceptive.  The  mere  aspect  of  a  great  personage,  the  mere 
report  of  his  presence,  has  sometimes,  on  grave  emergencies, 
exercised  a  decisive  influence.  But  however  great  the  re- 
sults might  be,  they  were  human.  The  means  and  the  ef- 
fect were  not  disproportioned  to  each  other.  But  spiritual 
effects  demand  a  spiritual  cause,  and  the  fact  of  Christ's  cor- 
poreal presence,  considered  in  itself,  is  not  so.     There  is  no- 


254  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

thing  spiritual  in  it.  If  it  did  not  absolutely  exclude  the 
agency  of  the  Spirit,  it  could  not  supply  its  place ;  but  we 
are  satisfied  that  the  establishinent  of  the  reign  of  the  Spirit 
in  the  Church  is  dependent  on  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ 
at  the  right  hand  of  his  Father,  and  not  on  his  presence  in  the 
midst  of  us. 

This  absence  of  a  visible  and  corporeal  Christ  is  regarded 
as  a  privation,  a  loss.  But  it  is  the  flesh  itself,  it  is  the 
charna  of  the  present  life  that  makes  us  deem  it  so.  Jesus 
Christ  absent  is  not  diminished,  or  rather,  though  absent,  is 
not  absent.  His  Spirit  is  himself.  He  is  wholly  present  in 
the  presence  of  his  Spirit.  It  has  been  said  of  a  great  cap- 
tain, that  his  ghost  could  have  gained  battles  ;  but  the  Floly 
Spirit  is  not  the  ghost  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  left  us  more  than 
his  portrait  when  he  left  us  the  Comforter.  And  if  it  is  true 
that  a  perpetual  warfare  is  allotted  to  Jesus  Christ  on  the 
earth ;  if,  as  we  doubt  not,  he  is  ever  engaged  in  fighting 
battles,  it  is  not  his  shade,  but  himself,  that  fights  and  wins 
them.  In  giving  us  his  Spirit,  he  does  more  than  take  of  his 
own  to  give  it  to  us,  he  gives  himself;  yes,  just  as  person- 
ally, just  as  effectually  as  on  that  memorable  day  when  the 
sun  was  extinguished  in  the  heavens.  He  still  gives  him- 
self,  though  without  shedding  of  blood,  in  glory  and  in  power, 
invisible  to  the  eyes  of  the  flesh,  but  visible  to  the  eyes  of 
the  soul,  and  immediately  and  personally  apprehended  by 
faith. 

It  is  true  that  the  hope  of  Christ's  return  must  have  some 
value.  Whatever  may  be  the  form  of  that  return,  in  what- 
ever manner  Christ  may  manifest  himself  on  the  great  day, 
it  has  been  promised  to  our  faith,  and  will  make  that  day 
differ  from  those  whose  fleeting  hours  compose  the  period  of 
our  pilgrimage.  There  will  be  a  manifestation,  a  sight. 
Sight  has  always  been  the  recompense,  the  encouragement 
of  faith.      But   the   first   thing  necessary   was  to    believe. 


JESUS    INVISIBLK.  255 

Jesus  Christ  did  few  miracles,  in  other  words,  granted  little 
to  sight,  when  he  met  with  much  unbelief.  After  all,  faith 
is  life.  Sight  is  royalty  ;  but  in  order  to  reign,  and  before 
reigning,  it  is  necessary  to  live  ;  and  sight  is  glory  and  fe- 
licity only  to  him  to  whom  long  before  seeing  it  has  been 
given  to  believe. 

"  Enough  of  this,"  you  say,  "  perhaps  too  much.  None 
of  us  have  the  idea,  far  less  the  hope,  of  withdrawing  the 
Son  of  man  from  the  blessed  light  of  heaven  to  make  him 
dwell  a  second  time  In  the  sad  darkness  of  this  life."  I  be- 
lieve it,  brethren ;  but  do  you  not  claim  something  which, 
in  effect,  is  the  very  thing  which  you  disavow  ? 

If  you  presume  not  to  claim  the  visibility  of  Jesus  Christ's 
personal  presence,  you  wish  it  in  some  other  manner;  in 
other  words,  you  wish  visible  signs  of  his  invisible  presence. 

If  the  signs  for  which  you  call  are  only  those  fruits  of 
the  Spirit,  those  good  works,  that  holy  activity  which  consti- 
tutes and  manifests  Christianity  in  the  heart,  assuredly  you 
are  right.  These  signs,  and  many  of  them,  are  required, 
and  we  have  only  one  observation  to  make  in  regard  to  them, 
and  it  is,  that  these  signs  of  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ 
you  ought  in  the  first  instance  to  ask  from  yourselves. 

But  it  is  not  of  this  holy  desire  that  we  speak.  There  is 
another  less  pure,  that  which  suggested  to  the  Israelites  the 
rash  demand.  Make  us  gods  to  walk  before  us.  There  is 
not  a  man  who  does  not,  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  ask  gods 
who  may  walk  before  him,  nor  a  Christian  who,  at  certain 
moments,  would  not  ask  them  if  he  dared. 

What  is  asked  is  not  (God  forbid)  something  like  the 
golden  calf;  it  is  not  even  the  ark  of  the  living  God,  nor 
even  the  cloud.  We  are  no  longer  in  that  position.  What 
is  it,  then  ?  I  will  tell  you.  It  is  any  thing  which  will  give 
a  distinct  form  and  tangible  shape  to  the  spiritual  kingdom 
which  Jesus  Christ  came  to  establish  on  the  earth. 


256  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

In  the  first  rank  are  the  institutions  and  customs  which 
time  has  consecrated  in  the  bosom  of  the  Christian  Church. 
These  circumstances,  which  are  wholly  external  and  are 
not  the  Church  itself,  we  so  overvalue  that  we  mistake  them 
for  the  Church  :  if  certain  barriers,  certain  words,  certain 
sounds,  happen  to  fail,  we  think  it  is  the  Church  herself  that 
fails  ;  it  seems  as  if  the  strength  of  our  communion,  or  Jesus 
Christ  himself,  is  attached  to  these  means  or  symbols,  and 
that  the  event  which  has  substituted  for  these  other  means, 
other  symbols,  has  thereby  deprived  us  both  of  that  spiritual 
communion  whose  seat  is  in  the  heart,  and  of  Jesus  Christ 
himself,  who  is  present  in  the  midst  of  us  only  in  so  far  as 
he  dwells  in  our  heart.  We  then  feel,  as  it  were,  buried  in 
darkness  and  lost  in  vacuity.  We  no  longer  know  how  to 
act ;  the  earth  seems  to  give  way  under  our  feet,  our  heart 
melts  within  us,  and  we  can  scarcely  help  exclaiming,  with 
the  woman  at  the  sepulchre,  "  They  have  taken  away  my 
Lord ;  and  I  know  not  where  they  have  laid  him  !" 

Sometimes  we  consider  Jesus  Christ  to  be  represented  by 
men  who  are  devoted  to  his  service,  and  whom  we  believe  to 
be  penetrated  with  his  Spirit.  Every  Christian,  in  a  certain 
sense,  represents  Jesus  Christ,  and  represents  him  the  better 
the  more  implicitly  he  submits  to  him.  The  error  lies  in 
making  a  mere  man  the  object  of  feelings  which  are  due  only 
to  our  Lord,  and  in  regarding  any  instrument  of  whatever 
nature  as  necessary.  This  error  is  common,  and  alienates 
from  Jesus  Christ  while  it  appears  to  pay  him  an  homage  of 
which  he  ought  to  be  the  sole  object.  How  often  in  this 
manner  is  our  adoration  misplaced  and  led  astray  !  How 
often  do  we  make  the  altar  of  the  living  God  the  pedestal  of 
an  idol !  And  when  the  righteous  hand  of  God  throws  down 
this  idol  and  breaks  it  to  pieces,  when  this  man,  supposed 
necessary,  has  disappeared,  all  has  disappeared  with  him. 
He  was  the  god  who  walked  before   us ;    his    inspirations 


JESUS   INVISIBLE.  257 

were  all  our  wisdom,  his  voice,  in  spite  of  us,  perhaps,  had 
silenced  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  within  us.  Has  he  forsaken 
us  ?  The  silence  is  complete  and  the  darkness  profound. 
He  had  become  to  us  unconsciously  Jesus  present,  Jesus  vis- 
ible ;  and  death,  or  absence,  or  some  other  dispensation,  by 
removing  away  this  man,  has  left  us  alone  with  ourselves, 
even  after  we  had  received  the  words  of  Christ,  "  I  am  with 
you  to  the  end  of  the  world." 

The  success,  the  internal  prosperity  of  Christianity  are 
also  a  kind  of  visible  Christ  to  us.  We  are  willing  not  to 
believe  him  absent  so  long  as  we  see  his  religion  honored, 
multitudes  thronging  his  churches,  society  at  least  tacitly 
recognizing  him  as  its  head,  infidelity  blushing  to  avow  itself, 
and  hatred  (for  we  cannot  be  ignorant  that  he  has  enemies,) 
blaspheming  only  in  secret.  Our  faith  takes  courage  at  the 
sight ;  alas  !  this  sight  is  all  the  faith  possessed  by  the  greater 
number.  How  readily  our  hope  fails,  and  our  faith  is  shaken, 
how  soon  we  fall  away,  when,  in  consequence  of  any  great 
change  in  the  condition  of  society,  enmity  grows  bold,  and  of 
a  sudden  "  the  hearts  of  many  are  revealed  !"  In  all  this, 
however,  there  is  nothing  new.  Jesus  Christ  has  no  more 
enemies  than  he  had  ;  those  who  are  hostile  to-day  were  so 
yesterday ;  the  only  difference  is  that  they  are  now  known, 
and  know  themselves.  But  the  very  circumstance  of  its 
being  believed  that  Jesus  Christ  has  more  enemies,  diminishes 
the  number  of  his  friends.  What  do  I  say  ?  It  seems  as  if 
this  host  of  enemies  had  carried  Jesus  Christ  away.  Like 
Enoch,  he  disappears  and  is  not.  It  seems  as  if  he  had 
never  appeared,  as  if  he  had  never  been,  and  as  if,  dreadful 
to  say,  his  removal  from  the  earth  took  away  not  a  real 
being,  but  a  name  !  After  hearing  and  hearing  again  that 
the  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observation,  that  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  is  not  of  this  world,  that  the  Church  is  not 
the  world,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  cross  is  to  the  natural  man 


258  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

foolishness,  that  the  truth  is  always  offensive,  and  that  to 
the  end  true  believers  will  be  a  small  and  select  number, 
that  humiliation  and  contempt  are  the  inheritance  of  the 
Church  upon  earth,  all  this  fades  away  from  the  memory, 
and  it  plainly  appears  that  these  expressions  had  hitherto 
been  used  without  being  understood  or  believed.  All  are  not 
shaken  in  an  equal  degree,  but  the  firmest  feel  their  knees 
bending,  and  more  than  one  of  those  who  still  believe,  (be- 
cause faith  cannot  die,)  more  than  one  cries  to  Jesus,  as  the 
disciples  once  did,  "  Abide  with  UvS,  for  it  is  toward  evening, 
and  the  day  is  far  spent !"     Luke  xxiv.  29. 

But  Jesus  Christ,  who  cannot  permit  us  either  to  serve 
him  as  an  idol,  or  to  put  idols  in  his  place,  or  to  seek  indubi- 
table evidence  of  his  presence  any  where  but  in  ourselves  ; 
Jesus  Christ,  as  on  that  day  when  the  multitude  erroneously 
wished  to  make  him  a  king,  "  withdraws  to  a  mountain." 
By  this  new  retreat  he  extinguishes  the  bright  light  which 
he  had  kindled ;  he  obliges  us  to  seek  him  on  the  mountain, 
in  other  words,  in  our  faith,  and  constrains  us  to  look  at  him 
with  other  eyes  than  those  of  flesh.  Those  days,  strongly 
resembling  nights,  are  days  of  trial,  but  thereby  days  of 
blessing.  True  faith  is  astonished,  we  admit,  but  it  recovers 
itself,  or  rather  recovers  the  invisible  Saviour  from  whom  it 
had  allowed  itself  to  be  drawn  far  away  towards  reflected 
objects  and  symbols.  A  similar  day  has  been  given  to  us. 
The  darkness  is  gathering.  The  lights  are  being  extin- 
guished. The  world  is  more  completely  than  ever  the  world, 
and  Christians  are  again  in  its  eyes  a  peculiar  people.  It  is 
not  the  substance  but  the  aspect  of  things  that  has  changed. 
The  respective  amounts  of  faith  and  unbelief  have  doubtless 
somewhat  varied ;  but  unbelief  has  with  many  changed  its 
character  ;  it  is  serious,  it  aflirms,  it  believes,  it  removes 
mountains.  These  mountains  will  crush  it  to  pieces,  for  it  is 
strong  only  in  denying,  and  when  it  rises  to  aflirmation,  it 


JESUS    INVISIBLE.  259 

calls  forth  a  unanimous  and  crushing  denial  from  facts  and 
from  nature.  Be  this  as  it  may,  what  grounds  have  we  not 
for  saying  to  the  power  of  falsehood,  "  This  is  your  hour  and 
the  power  of  darkness."  Luke  xxii.  53.  This  is  one  of 
those  evenings,  those  gloomy  evenings,  in  which  the  Church 
requires  to  be  illumined  by  the  light  which  she  carries  within 
her,  but  it  is  also  one  of  those  evenings  whose  darkness,  so 
to  speak,  kindles  a  thousand  fires  in  the  sky  of  the  Church. 
Do  you  not  see  them  one  after  another  start  up  and  illumine 
the  darkness  ?  Do  you  not  see  life  and  motion  springing  up 
on  every  side,  a  reviving  interest  in  the  works  of  which  the 
glory  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  object,  the  spirit  of  enterprise 
and  conquest  again  becoming  the  spirit  of  a  Christian  people 
so  long  a  stranger  to  the  divine  impatience  which  sees  the 
fields  already  white,  though  others  think  there  are  still  three 
months  till  harvest  ?  Who  would  dare  to  say  that  the 
Church,  the  true  Church,  ever  dies  ?  None,  not  even  its 
proudest  enemies.  What  although  the  flame  burns  flickering, 
and  on  a  narrow  hearth  ?  What  matters  it  if  it  is  as  pure, 
as  vigorous,  as  devouring  as  ever  ? 

Brethren,  let  us,  with  all  the  strength  which  God  has 
given,  resist  the  dangerous  temptations  of  that  "  lust  of  the 
eye,"  which,  from  our  carnal  nature,  we  carry  even  into  the 
purest  of  religions.  Majestic  power,  ancient  memorials, 
space  and  number,  brilliant  actions  and  fascinating  talents, 
are  all  so  many  modes  in  which  we  would  have  Jesus  Christ 
to  become  visible  to  our  eyes.  Notwithstanding  his  glo- 
rious ascension,  we  insist  on  clothing  him  in  mortal  flesh,  in 
order  that  we  may  be  able  to  know,  according  to  the  flesh, 
him  who  desires  to  be  known  and  loved  only  according  to 
the  Spirit.  We  invest  him  with  a  mortal  flesh,  and  thereby 
make  him  mortal.  Yes,  we  render  him  subject  to  death  a 
second  lime,  and  for  ever ;  and  when  he  does  come  to  die  in 
that  flesh  with  which  we  have  against  his  will  invested  him, 


260  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

alas!  is  there  not  ground  to  fear  that  he  will  also  die  in  our 
hearts  ?  Bible  Christians,  we  look  with  pity  on  the  believers 
in  the  real  presence,  and  yet  we  differ  from  them  only  in 
form,  since,  like  them,  we  call  up  a  Jesus  Christ  in  flesh, 
in  order  to  secure  his  dying  still  more  certainly  on  the  altar 
of  our  hearts.  A  taste,  a  love,  a  reverence  for  the  invisible, 
is  still  rare  among  the  very  men  who  are  always  repeating 
that  they  must  set  their  affections  on  the  invisible  realities  of 
eternity,  and  that  their  true  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 
Brethren,  we  have  all,  in  this  respect,  much  progress  to 
make.  May  we  desire  it !  May  we  ask  it !  This  were 
almost  to  have  accomplished  it. 


GRACE  AND  FAITH. 


"  By  grace  are  ye  saved,  through  faith." — Ephesians  ii.  8. 

St.  Paul  addresses  these  words  to  the  Ephesians,  who  had 
formerly  been  idolaters,  without  God  and  without  hope  in  the 
world.  There  was  no  need  of  any  particular  circumstance 
to  determine  him  to  speak  to  them  in  such  terms.  In  doing  so 
he  simply  announced  to  them  the  Gospel,  whose  doctrine, 
vast  though  it  be,  is  all  summed  up  in  the  words  which  we 
have  read.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  in  this  place  they 
have  a  special  emphasis.  The  new  converts,  surrounded  by 
Jews  and  intermixed  with  Jews,  were  in  danger  of  receiving 
the  most  pernicious  influences  even  from  those  Jews  who 
had,  like  themselves,  embraced  Christianity.  The  Jews, 
with  their  traditions  and  their  legal  spirit,  might  intercept 
the  rays,  or  at  least  some  of  the  rays,  of  Gospel  light.  For, 
even  in  accepting  Jesus  Christ,  the  ancient  disciples  of  Mo- 
ses were  desirous  to  owe  somewhat  to  their  works,  and  to  be, 
up  to  a  certain  point,  saved  by  their  works.  In  this  way  the 
glad  tidings  were  no  sooner  proclaimed  than  they  were  in 
danger  of  being  altered  and  denaturalized.     It  is  to  this  dan- 


262  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

ger,  or  perhaps  already  flagrant  abuse,  that  St.  Paul  opposes 
the  authority  of  his  word.  Whatever  others  may  say  to  you, 
(he  seems  to  cry  to  the  Ephesians,)  whatever  others  may 
allege,  be  assured  that  you  are  saved  not  by  your  merit,  but 
merely  by  grace  ;  not  by  your  works,  but  by  means  of  faith. 
This  same  voice  administers  rebuke  at  all  periods  to  those 
Jews  (Jews,  not  by  birth,  but  in  heart,)  who  persist  in  inces- 
santly speaking  of  righteousness  when  there  is  room  only  for 
grace,  in  pluming  themselves  upon  works  instead  of  leaning 
upon  faith.  For  in  the  error  of  the  Jews  the  Apostle  has 
discovered  two  errors,  to  which  he  opposes  two  truths.  The 
Jews  pretend  to  save  themselves.  This,  when  properly  un- 
derstood, means  that  they  have  no  need  of  being  saved.  Sal- 
vation, for  which  their  merits  will  pay,  is  in  their  eyes  a 
matter  of  strict  right,  and  pure  justice.  The  answer  to 
them  is.  No;  but  grace  alone  will  bear  the  expense  of  your 
salvation.  The  Jews  rest  in  their  works,  (that  is,  in  works 
properly  so  called.)  in  an  external  display  of  their  own  pow- 
ers. No,  says  St.  Paul,  your  works,  be  they  what  they  may, 
your  works,  as  works,  will  not  be  imputed  to  you  ;  your 
faith  only  will  be  imputed.  Only  by  grace  and  by  faith  can 
you  be  saved.  Does  this  mean,  brethren,  that  there  are  two 
methods  of  salvation  ?  Does  grace  perform  one  half  of  the 
work  and  faith  the  other  half?  The  very  words  of  St.  Paul 
forbid  such  an  idea.  They  evidently  ascribe  the  whole  of 
our  salvation  to  grace,  or  to  God.  "  You  are  saved  by 
grace,"  says  he,  and  shortly  afterwards,  "  that  not  of  your- 
selves." And  yet  he  also  says,  *'Ye  are  saved  by  faith." 
What  has  faith  to  do  here  ?  In  what  relation  does  it  stand  to 
grace  ?  How  does  it  allow  grace  to  subsist  in  all  its  ful- 
ness ?  How  can  a  man  be  saved  by  his  faith,  (for  the  faith 
spoken  of  is  certainly  his  faith,)  and  yet  owe  his  whole  sal- 
vation to  grace  ?  It  is  this,  brethren,  that  we  wish  to  ex- 
plain.    In  general,   it  is  of  importance  to  every  Christian, 


GRACE   AND   FAITH.  263 

and  to  every  man,  to  have  a  full  understanding  of  that  part 
of  theology  which  treats  of  grace  and  faith.  Let  whatever 
in  it  is  impenetrable  remain  impenetrable,  but  let  that  which 
is  made  to  be  understood  be  well  understood.  Let  us  be- 
ware of  supplying  the  place  of  ideas  by  vain  words.  Let  us 
have  the  key  of  our  treasury,  and  venture  to  open  it.  Let 
us  learn  from  the  Gospel,  and  from  experience,  what  are  the 
true,  natural,  and  inevitable  relations  between  faith  and 
grace.  Let  us  thus  avoid  those  misunderstandings  which 
freeze  or  irritate  the  heart,  and  usually  do  both. 

You  are  saved,  says  the  Apostle ;  consequently,  you 
were  lost.  This  last  is  not  a  simple  idea.  The  loss  of  man 
is  compounded  of  two  elements,  or  presents  itself  under  two 
aspects.  Man  is  condemned,  and  he  is  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins.  But  are  these  two  facts  merely  in  juxtaposition  ? 
Have  they  no  more  intimate  relation  ?  They  have  one  so 
intimate,  dear  brethren,  that  the  real  difficulty  is,  not  to  con- 
nect them,  but  to  discriminate  between  them.  Wherein 
does  condemnation  consist  ?  What  is,  so  to  speak,  its  sum 
and  substance  ?  Is  it  not,  before  all  and  above  all,  our  spir- 
itual separation  from  God  ?  To  what  punishment  more  se- 
vere than  the  interruption  of  all  communication  with  God 
could  a  being  be  subjected  who  is  made  for  God,  and  can  no 
more  live  without  God  than  the  bird  without  air,  or  the  fish 
without  water  ?  Now,  this  perpetual  paralysis  of  the  moral 
being  is  nothing  else  than  that  death  which  we  lately  men- 
tioned in  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  that  spiritual  death  into 
which  sin  has  plunged  us,  and  to  which  we  had  doomed 
ourselves  before  God  had  condemned  us.  Condemnation 
may  include  more,  but  it  certainly  includes  this  death  ;  and 
this  death  is  necessarily  the  principal  part,  the  very  founda- 
tion of  condemnation.  However,  brethren,  in  a  certain  point 
of  view  condemnation  anfl  death  are  really  two,  as  God  and 
man  are  two.   If,  in  considering  the  lost  estate  of  man,  we  look 


264  GOSPEL    STUDIES^. 

at  the  justice  of  God,  that  loss  is  condemnation  ;  if  we  look  to 
man,  the  chief  part  of  the  loss  is  death.  Man  is  lost  in  two 
senses,  in  denying  God,  and  in  being  denied  by  God  ;  lost  by 
this  t\<^ofold  abandonment,  this  reciprocal  repulsion — the 
flight,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  of  the  Creator  away  from  the 
creature,  whose  wickedness  offends  his  holy  eye,  and  of  the 
creature  from  the  Creator,  of  whom  he  cannot  think  without 
mingled  feelings  of  terror  and  hatred.  This  is  what  is 
called  the  lost  estate  of  man,  and  such  is  the  abyss  out  of 
which  the  Apostle  saw  the  Ephesians  delivered  when  he 
said  to  them,  "  Ye  are  saved." 

You  were  lost.  Is  the  whole  meaning  of  these  words 
merely  that  you  were  exposed  to  danger,  seriously  com- 
promised, eclipsed,  though  not  extinguished  ?  No ;  these 
words,  in  regard  to  punishment,  signify  condemned  finally, 
without  appeal,  and  without  resource  ;  while,  in  regard  to 
moral  degradation,  they  signify  dead,  a  term  to  which  nothing 
can  be  added.  When  you  shall  have  seen  a  tree  which  was 
rooted  up  and  cast  away  from  its  place,  return,  replant  itself, 
and  take  an  erect  position,  you  may  believe,  though  without 
comprehending  it,  that  man,  equally  rooted  up,  may  by  himself 
plant  himself  anew  in  the  land  of  reconciliation  and  life,  and 
resume  his  ancient  place  and  ancient  honors  in  the  garden 
of  God.  In  this  passage,  then,  the  meaning  of  the  word  lost 
is  complete,  absolute,  irrevocable.  There  is  no  resource, 
now  at  least,  which  any  man  can  imagine  or  foresee. 

And  now,  says  the  Apostle,  you  who  were  lost  are  saved. 
I  do  not  stop  to  inquire  whether  in  the  eyes  of  St.  Paul  the 
Ephesians  were  in  the  state  or  the  way  of  salvation  at  the 
moment  when  he  said  to  them,  "  You  are  saved."  The 
words  certainly  mean  that  the  whole  cost  of  their  salvation 
had  been  paid  ;  that  all  which  could  be  done  without  them 
had  been  done ;  in  a  word,  that  it  depended  only  on  them  to 
be  saved.     But  we  do  not  even  insist  on  this  interpretation 


GRACE    AND    FAITH.  265 

of  the  apostolic  declaration,  however  probable  it  may  be. 
We  are  willing  only  to  find  a  single  idea  which  every  person 
will  surely  find  in  it  as  well  as  we,  namely,  that  there  is  a 
salvation,  a  means  of  escaping  from  condemnation,  and  being 
delivered  from  death.  This  means  is  called  grace,  and  it  is 
also  called  faith. 

No,  brethren;  we  express  ourselves  improperly.  The 
means  invariably  lie  between  the  effect  and  the  cause,  and 
connect  them  together.  Now,  before  grace  can  be  a  means, 
there  must  be  something  beneath  and  something  above  it, 
whereas  there  is  certainly  nothing.  Grace,  therefore,  is  not 
the  means  of  our  salvation ;  it  is  the  principle,  the  source, 
the  reason,  the  cause  of  it.  Our  salvation  proceeds  entirely 
from  the  grace  or  merciful  will  of  the  Father  of  spirits,  just 
as  the  bird  proceeds  entirely  from  the  egg,  and  the  fruit 
entirely  from  the  branch,  though  heat  is  necessary  to  hatch 
the  egg,  and  a  hand  necessary  to  gather  the  fruit.  Grace 
is  therefore  the  cause,  the  source  of  salvation  ;  faith  is  only 
the  means,  or  if  you  will,  there  are  two  graces ;  one  which 
is  performed  out  of  us,  and  which  the  Apostle  calls  simply 
grace,  and  another  which  is  accomplished  in  us,  and  which 
the  Apostle  calls  faith.  In  principle,  grace  is  one ;  but 
it  has  different  moments,  different  places,  different  forms. 
There  are  several  gifts,  but  the  whole  is  gift.  Grace  out  of 
us,  grace  in  us ;  such  is  the  Gospel. 

Thus,  then,  the  terms  of  the  text  do  not  designate  either 
two  means,  since  grace  is  not  a  mean,  nor  two  halves  of  a 
whole,  since  grace  is  the  whole.  Grace  is  the  whole,  of 
which  faith  is  a  part.  You  are  saved  by  grace  ;  this  is  the 
general  truth.  You  are  saved  by  faith;  this  is  the  particular 
truth.  In  other  words,  it  is  necessary  for  the  completion  of 
salvation  that  grace  produce  faith. 

But  since  it  is  evident  that  in  grace  all  is  not  faith,  it  is 
natural  to  ask,  prior  to  and  independently  of  faith,  when  faith 
13 


26a  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

as  yet  does  not  exist,  what  is  there  ?  Or,  in  other  terms, 
before  giving  us  faith  what  has  God  given  us  ?  what  has 
God  done  for  us  ? 

He  has  pardoned.  Here  the  terms  and  even  our  con- 
ceptions fail ;  for  the  eternal  God  must  have  pardoned  from 
all  eternity.  He  remitted  the  debt  before  it  was  contracted. 
Before  striking  the  blow  he  was  appeased.  Let  us  bow  our 
heads  before  this  mystery,  and  freely  speak  the  language 
which  God  permits  us  to  speak.  God  has  pardoned.  The 
term  does  not  seem  to  need  explanation.  Every  one  under- 
stands that  to  pardon  is  to  remit  the  punishment  which  an 
offence  had  merited,  is  to  restore  the  offender  to  the  position 
in  which  he  was  before  he  offended.  Such  is  the  intention 
of  pardon  ;  and  if  we  consider  pardon  only  in  its  intention, 
the  idea  of  a  man  who  pardons,  is  sufficient  to  make  us  con- 
ceive the  idea  of  a  God  who  pardons,  and  to  say  the  truth, 
it  is  only  by  the  former  that  we  can  rise  to  the  latter.  But 
if  we  look  to  pardon  as  a  completed  act,  to  pardon  made 
effectual,  an  important  difference  presents  itself.  A  sover- 
eign who  grants  pardon,  an  individual  who  renounces  ven- 
geance, have  not  less  conferred  a  full  and  effectual  pardon, 
that  the  object  of  their  clemency  remains  the  same  absolutely, 
and  the  same  in  respect  to  them,  or  that  he  experiences  the 
effect  of  their  generosity  without  knowing  the  source  of  it. 
Changed,  or  not  changed,  he  is  nevertheless  pardoned.  Such 
is  the  case  in  regard  to  this  world's  affairs.  But  we  have 
not  yet  forgotten  what  is  meant  by  man's  being  lost.  To  be 
lost  is  not  only  to  be  condemned,  it  is  to  be  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins,  and  this  spiritual  death  of  itself  constitutes  his 
condemnation.  To  remain  in  this  death,  is  to  remain  in 
condemnation.  Condemnation  unaccompanied  by  this  death 
would  be  impossible ;  it  would  no  longer  be  condemnation. 
For  there  is  no  real  condemnation  to  him  who  enjoys  that 
communion  of  thought  and  will  with  God,  which  is  the  lif^ 


GRACE    AND    FAITH.  267 

of  our  soul  just  as  a  separation  from  him  is  its  death.  From 
this  you  doubtless  perceive  that  this  change  of  heart,  the 
absence  of  which  does  not  nullify  a  pardon  granted  by  man 
to  man,  is  essential  in  the  work  of  mercy  by  our  heavenly 
King.  This  change  is  not  a  previous  condition  of  pardon  or 
of  grace,  the  characteristic  of  which  on  the  contrary  is  to  be 
unconditional.  This  change  of  heart,  thought,  and  life,  this 
change  of  the  whole  man,  this  new  birth,  is  the  realization, 
or,  as  we  might  call  it,  the  very  substance  of  pardon,  just 
as  spiritual  death  is  the  essence  of  condemnation.  And  it  is 
in  this  sense  that  an  Apostle  has  expressed  the  fact  of  redemp- 
tion in  the  following  terms,  "  You  were  .  . .  redeemed 

from  your  vain  conversation  received  by  tradition  from 
your  fathers."  1  Pet.  i.  18.  And  another  Apostle,  setting 
before  the  view  of  his  disciples  the  final  recompense  of  their 
fidelity  and  accomplishment  of  the  promises  of  God,  tells 
them  that  God  "  did  predestinate  "  them  "  to  be  conformed 
to  the  image  of  his  Son."     Rom.  viii.  29. 

The  two  ideas  of  pardon  and  regeneration  are  thus  united 
as  closely  as  the  two  ideas  of  condemnation  and  spiritual 
death.  I  do  not  say,  be  careful  to  observe  that  this  spiritual 
death,  this  living  death,  is  the  wJioIe  of  condemnation,  or  that 
this  regeneration,  or  this,  new  life,  is  the  whole  effect  of 
pardon  ;  T  only  say  that  spiritual  death  is  the  principal 
element  of  condemnation,  and  that  the  regeneration  of  the 
heart  is  the  consummation  of  grace,  and  the  very  foundation 
of  salvation. 

This  does  not  oblige  us  to  confound  what  is  distinct,  and 
requires  to  be  distinguished.  The  remission  of  sins,  the 
abolition  of  our  debt,  the  declared  purpose  to  regard  sinful 
man  as  innocent,  in  one  word,  pardon  sealed  and  guaranteed 
by  the  greatest  of  sacrifices,  all  this  is  something  else  than 
the  gift  of  the  new  birth  ;  but  after  making  these  reserva- 
tions, we  may  be  permitted  to  make  a  supposition.     Let  us 


268  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

suppose  that  the  merciful  desire  of  our  Creator  had  remained 
concealed  in  his  own  bosom,  or  rather  let  us  suppose  that  the 
amnesty  had  remained  a  secret  between  the  eternal  Father 
and  the  eternal  Son  ;  let  us  suppose  that  in  order  to  procure 
this  pardon,  and  these  letters  of  pardon,  the  well-beloved  of 
the  Father  had  shed  his  blood,  either  in  some  other  world  far 
beyond  our  ken,  or  if  you  please  on  the  earth,  but  without 
our  knowing  it.  Every  thing  is  finished  ;  only  we  are  not 
aware  of  the  fact,  we  do  not  even  know  that  any  scheme  has 
been  devised.  Are  we  saved  ?  You  might  tell  me  that  in 
virtue  of  these  great  measures,  although  they  are  unknown 
to  us,  we  shall  not  on  quitting  this  world  be  subjected  in  the 
other  to  the  punishments  with  which  we  thought  we  were 
threatened.  This  I  admit ;  but  I  again  ask.  Are  we  saved  ? 
Are  we  saved  even  though  our  ignorance  should  not  then 
cease,  nor  the  good  will  of  God  be  revealed  to  us,  though,  in 
a  word,  the  Gospel  be  not  preached  to  the  dead  ?  Though 
the  Gospel  should  not  have  given  you  any  light  on  this  sub- 
ject, you  would  reply.  No ;  we  cannot  be  saved  by  a  grace 
which  does  not  change  us,  and  we  cannot  be  changed  by  a 
grace  which  has  not  been  revealed  to  us. 

None  of  you  I  believe  will  controvert  me,  none  will  even 
call  for  a  proof  of  my  averment.  I  suppose  for  a  moment 
that  some  among  my  hearers  are  not  Christians,  but  that  all 
have  a  sincere  respect  for  the  principles  of  the  moral  law. 
I  shall  thus  have  two  classes  of  hearers,  and  I  shall  have  the 
assent  of  both .  Those  who  are  Christians  will  not  maintain  that 
true  happiness,  and  consequently  eternal  happines,  (for  it  is 
eternal  only  because  it  is  true,)  can  be  the  portion  of  creatures 
whose  heart  is  still  separated  from  God,  and  hostile  to  God. 
They  know,  they  feel  the  contrary,  and  though  their  faith  for- 
bids  them  to  make  any  human  merit  the  legal  condition  of  sal- 
vation, they  are  fully  convinced  that  holiness  is  an  integral  and 
essential  part  of  salvation.    And  as  to  the  other  class,  the  mo- 


GRACE    AND    FAITH.  269 

ralists,  (if  they  will  allow  us  to  call  them  so,)  it  would  be  to 
abjure  their  principles,  and  abjure  them  gratuitously,  to  sup- 
pose it  possible  that  there  could  be  happiness  beside  God  with- 
out being  happiness  according  to  God.  Both  might  readily 
admit  that  the  amnesty  of  which  we  speak  might  have  taken 
ofFsome  material  inflictions  ;  but  this  amnesty  being  unknown, 
and  therefore  incapable  of  acting  upon  the  heart,  (where, 
notwithstanding,  impious  hostility  would  subsist,)  could  not 
secure  the  blessedness  of  heaven  ;  it  could  not  prevent  man, 
while  remaining  the  same,  from  being  inexpressibly  and 
eternally  miserable.  To  prove  the  contrary  would  be  to 
prove  that  God  is  not  holy,  that  God  is  not  God. 

Now,  it  being  once  admitted  that  the  work  of  redemption 
is  illusory  if  it  is  not  revealed  to  us,  and  that  "  my  righteous 
Servant,"  as  Isaiah  speaks,  will  justify  many  by  the  know- 
ledge which  they  shall  have  of  him,  (Is.  liii.  11,)  we  have 
only  to  advance  a  single  step  in  order  to  establish  the  neces- 
sity and  determine  the  office  of  faith.  There  is  this  common 
between  him  to  w'hom  the  pardon  has  not  been  revealed  and 
him  who  does  not  helieve  in  it,  that  they  are  both  ignorant. 
The  unbeliever  is  ignorant  like  the  other.  Not  believing  he 
knows  not,  and  all  the  advantages  which  may  result  from 
knowledge  are  lost  to  him  as  much  as  to  the  other  who  is 
simply  ignorant ;  and  in  so  far  as  a  supreme  happiness  is 
attached  to  those  spiritual  advantages,  which,  to  say  the 
truth,  are  the  basis  and  foundation  of  this  happiness,  neither 
the  ignorant  nor  the  unbelieving  is  fit  to  enjoy  it ;  or,  as  our 
divine  Master  expresses  it,  neither  of  them  is  fit  for  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

But  it  is  only  in  one  respect,  and  for  the  time,  that  we 
have  been  able  to  place  the  unbelieving  and  the  ignorant  in 
the  same  position.  The  former,  who  has  received  an  offer 
of  pardon  and  rejected  it,  is  certainly  in  the  worse  condition. 
No  man  has  a  right  to  the  amnesty,  but  one  may  be  doubly 


270  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

unworthy,  and  this  is  the  case  of  him  who  has  refused  it. 
What  will  be  the  final  condition  of  involuntary  ignorance  I 
know  not,  and  seek  not  to  know  ;  but  one  thing  I  know  well, 
and  it  is,  that  as  he  who  knew  the  will  of  his  Master  and  did 
it  not  will  be  beaten  with  many  stripes,  so  will  it  be  with 
him  who  knew  the  good  will  of  the  Father  and  did  not  accept 
it.  In  so  far  as  the  amnesty  which  invites  offenders  to  pro- 
vide themselves  with  their  letters  of  pardon  against  a  certain 
term  has  been  clearly  and  regularly  promulgated,  in  so  far 
as  he  who  has  not  availed  himself  of  it  will  not  be  able  to 
plead  ignorance,  the  amnesty  in  regard  to  him  justly  falls, 
and  leaves  him  to  return  to  the  unhappy  condition  in  which 
he  was  before  its  promulgation.  He  was  not  excluded  from 
pardon,  but  he  has  excluded  himself;  he  has  relapsed,  and 
his  last  condition  is  worse  than  the  first.  There  is  pardon 
for  all  sinners,  but  not  for  the  sinner  who  remains  impenitent. 
But,  brethren,  instead  of  digressing  let  it  simply  be  our 
object  to  consider  positively  what  the  relations  are  between 
faith  and  grace.  We  say  truly  that  grace  is  complete  in 
itself;  it  is  the  gate  of  the  paternal  mansion  again  opened 
wide,  and  the  riches  within  are  given  without  distinction  to 
all  who  will  enter.  Grace  is  the  guilty  regarded  as  innocent. 
Grace  is  the  abolition  of  the  past,  and  a  new  starting  point 
given  to  human  life  and  human  nature.  Grace — it  is  chil- 
dren again  finding  their  father,  and  a  father  again  finding  his 
children!  But  in  order  that  this  grace  may  be  realized, 
it  is  absolutely  indispensable  that  he  who  gives  it  should 
also  give  the  knowledge  of  it.  This  is  necessary,  unless 
indeed  we  insist  that  the  happiness  of  heaven  is  altogether 
material,  in  which  case  undoubtedly  previous  knowledge 
would  be  useless,  the  heart  of  man  not  requiring  to  be 
changed  in  order  to  enjoy  a  material  happiness.  But  a 
happiness  of  this  kind  would  be  unworthy  of  God,  and  even 
if  the  whole  truth  must  be  told,  unworthy  of  man.     Now 


GRACE    AND    FAITH.  271 

what  is  the  happiness  of  heaven  ?  A  spiritual  happiness. 
We  need  only  see  how  the  Scriptures  designate  it.  To  see 
God,  to  see  him  as  he  is,  to  be  conformed  to  him,  to  know  as 
we  are  known,  to  possess  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in 
light,  the  external  peace  of  this  new  state  where  there  are 
no  more  tears,  nor  crying,  nor  toil,  only  completes  the  idea 
of  this  felicity,  but  does  not  constitute  it.  Now,  who  can 
enjoy  this  happiness  save  he  whose  heart  has  been  changed? 
and  what  hearts  can  be  changed,  save  those  who  learned 
upon  the  earth  how  far  the  Saviour  loved  them,  and  in  what 
manner  he  has  assured  them  of  his  love  ?  And  this  is  the 
reason  why  faith  forms  part  of  the  grace  which  saves,  and 
why  St.  Paul  said  to  the  Ephesians,  "  By  grace  are  ye  saved, 
through  faith."  Faith  is  the  hand  by  which  we  seize  the 
pardon,  the  promises,  the  love  of  the  Father ;  and  the  pro- 
viding us  with  this  spiritual  hand  forms  the  second  act  of 
divine  charity,  the  second  miracle  of  grace.  Faith  is  the 
mysterious  ingrafting  which  makes  us  to  become  branches  of 
the  Vine,  which  is  Jesus  Christ,  from  whom,  in  consequence 
of  our  union  with  him,  we  thenceforth  derive  all  our  nourish- 
ment, his  life  becoming  ours.  It  is  sufficient  to  know  him  in 
order  to  understand  how  faith  saves. 

It  is  true,  dear  brethren,  that  I  have  hitherto  spoken  more 
of  knowledge  than  of  faith,  and  that  I  have  not  distinguished 
them  from  each  other.  It  is  heca.use  faith  is  knowledge  ;  and 
it  is  under  this  point  of  view  that  I  wished  at  the  outset  to 
present  faith.  But  if  knowledge  and  faith  resemble  each 
other,  inasmuch  as  knowledge  is  included  in  faith,  it  is  how- 
ever of  importance  to  discriminate  them.  All  knowledge  is 
not  saving.  It  might  even  be  said  that  it  is  not  knowledge 
which  saves,  but  faith  ;  and  that  it  is  necessary  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  our  salvation  that  knowledge  should  become 
faith.  Two  things  are  necessary ;  knowledge  itself,  and  a 
certain   manner  of  knowing.      How  many  are  there  who 


272  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

know,  and  yet  are  not  in  the  way  of  salvation !  It  is  because 
their  knowledge  is  passive  or  inert,  a  knowledge  in  which 
will,  morality,  and  the  soul,  pass  for  nothing.  It  is  be- 
cause they  have  seen,  but  not  tasted  that  the  Lord  is  gra- 
cious ;  it  is  because  they  have  not  taken  the  proper  measure 
of  their  misery  so  as  to  enable  them  to  measure  the  extent  of 
his  love ;  it  is  because  they  have  taken  up  their  belief  with- 
out either  repugnance  or  affection,  just  as  they  would  have 
accepted  any  thing  that  happened  to  be  first  presented  ;  it  is 
because,  in  the  acquisition  of  this  treasure,  they  have  em- 
ployed the  paltriest  faculties,  the  mere  surface  of  the  soul ; 
it  is  because,  borne  aloft  on  the  shoulders  of  the  slaves 
called  prejudice,  authority,  and  custom,  or  carried  along  in 
that  rumbling  chariot  called  logic,  they  have  performed  a 
journey  which  they  ought  to  have  performed  barefoot,  or  ra- 
ther on  their  knees,  over  cutting  flints,  thorns,  and  briers. 
In  other  journeys  the  end  is  the  important  matter,  here  it  is 
the  road.  When  the  truth  is  known  only  as  they  actually 
know  it,  it  is  not  known  at  all.  We  cannot  handle  a  deli- 
cate substance  with  a  hand  of  iron  or  wood.  Death  cannot 
appropriate  life.  The  act  destined  to  bring  us  into  unison 
of  thought,  will,  and  habit  with  Jesus  Christ,  must  be  a  moral 
act.  Faith  is  a  desire,  a  homage,  a  promise,  almost  a  love. 
It  is  at  once  all  these,  and  at  the  same  time  is  all  that  is 
most  simple,  a  look  of  the  heart  towards  the  God  of  mercy, 
"  an  earnest  and  intent  consideration  of  Jesus  Christ  cruci- 
fied," the  committal  of  all  our  interests  into  his  Divine  hands, 
tranquillity  of  mind  and  heartfelt  peace  in  the  assurance  of 
his  love  and  power,  our  hand  placed  with  childlike  confi- 
dence in  his  as  in  that  of  a  protector  and  guide.  Such  is 
faith.  It  may  set  out  with  historical  certainty,  but  this  cer- 
tainty is  not  faith.  It  may  remain  in  the  state  of  opinion, 
but  this  opinion  is  not  faith.  It  may  be  reduced  to  a  popular 
prejudice,  but   this  prejudice  is  not  faith.     To  believe  is  to 


GRACE    AND    FAITH.  273 

confide  ;  to  believe  is  to  rely  upon  God.  Thus  Abraham  be- 
lieved, and  it  was  this  faith  and  this  alone  that  was  imputed 
to  him  for  righteousness.  Who  does  not  perceive  that  such 
a  manner  of  knowing  is  the  principle,  the  imperishable  germ 
of  a  new  life,  and  that  we  are  in  fact  saved  by  knowledge  ? 

Christianity  has  excluded  works  as  a  ground  of  our  as- 
surance. I  mean  external  works  ;  for  St.  James  could  not 
have  deviated  from  the  true  path  when  he  said  that  we  are 
''justified  by  works,  and  not  by  faith  only."  Ah  !  who  sees 
not  that  it  will  be  necessary  for  us  at  the  last  day  to  be  able 
to  produce  works  as  the  evidence  of  our  faith,  and  that,  at 
least  in  this  sense,  works  justify  ?  Accordingly,  it  is  written, 
"  Blessed  are  the  dead  that  die  in  the  Lord ;  for  they  rest 
from  their  labors,  and  their  works  do  follow  them  !"  But  if 
it  has  been  justly  asked,  What  kind  of  faith  is  that  which 
produces  no  works  ?  may  it  not  be  as  truly  asked.  What  kind 
of  works  are  those  of  which  faith  is  not  the  principle  ?  what 
kind  of  works  are  those  of  unbelief?  what  kind  of  works 
are  those  done  by  a  proud  and  impenitent  sinner  ?  what  kind 
of  works  are  those  of  a  being  who  has  rejected  the  love  of 
God  ?  what  kind  of  works  are  those  which  are  not  offered  to 
God  ?  True  faith,  then,  will  produce  works,  and  the  works 
of  faith  will  be  true  works.  But,  indeed,  it  seems  to  me  that 
those  who  cry  loudly  for  works,  and  works  to  the  exclusion 
of  faith,  are  very  fastidious  on  the  subject  of  works  if  they 
do  not  recognize  in  that  very  faith  which  includes  so  many 
efforts,  presupposes  so  many  struggles,  and  employs  so  many 
powers  or  works,  the  first  of  works,  and,  so  to  speak,  the 
work  of  works ;  the  profoundest,  richest,  most  pregnant,  and 
most  fruitful  work  of  which  a  human  being  is  capable  ;  an 
act  which  includes  every  thing  which  ought  to  be  done,  and 
excludes  every  thing  which  ought  not  to  be  done,  and  which 
prepares  the  human  soul  for  the  encounter  of  all  difficulties 
and  the  accomplishment  of  all  duties.  Some  persons  must 
13* 


'274  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

be  very  fastidious  in  the  matter  of  works.  Those  which 
they  despise  and  reject  will  one  day,  in  the  presence  of  God, 
absorb  all  the  works  of  which  they  boast,  just  as  the  serpent 
of  Moses  swallowed  up  those  of  the  magicians. 

When  I  represented  faith  as  a  life  of  the  soul,  I  told  you, 
by  anticipation,  that  faith  admits  of  degrees.  Between  be- 
lieving and  not  believing,  in  other  words,  between  possessing 
and  not  possessing  God,  there  is  doubtless  an  abyss  as  be- 
tween life  and  death  ;  accordingly,  we  cannot  be  more  or 
less  saved.  But  though  we  cannot  be  more  or  less  dead,  we 
may  be  more  or  less  alive.  We  may  believe  more  or  less, 
we  may  know  more  or  less,  feel  more  or  less,  enjoy  more  or 
less,  be  more  or  less  in  health.  There  is  progression  in  the 
life  of  faith,  as  in  every  life  ;  and  this  progress  is  even  the 
condition  ^nd  the  sign  of  life.  Faith  may  increase  in  cer- 
tainty, clearness,  vivacity,  and  energy.  It  was  probably  this 
that  the  disciples  asked  of  Jesus  when  they  said,  "  Increase 
our  faith."  It  was  in  one  or  other  of  these  respects,  perhaps 
in  all  these  respects,  that  St.  Paul  desired  to  add  to  what  was 
wanting  in  the  faith  of  the  Thessalonians.  It  was  this  pro- 
gress that  St.  Peter  had  in  view  when  he  said,  "  Grow  in 
knowledge."  For  in  religion,  to  believe  and  know  are  one 
and  the  same  thing.  The  measure  of  faith  is  to  each  the 
measure  of  peace,  charity,  liberty  and  life.  We  are  bound 
always  to  desire  more  than  we  possess,  and  if  any  one  is  not 
anxious  about  the  measure  of  his  faith,  that  is,  his  union 
with  God,  it  may  be  said  that  he  is  not  anxious  about  salva- 
tion, and  that  he  has  not  yet,  to  use  the  emphatic  expression 
of  St.  Paul,  laid  hold  of  eternal  life. 

It  is  thus,  my  beloved  brethren,  that  we  understand  the 
relations  between  grace  and  faith.  Grace  is  the  object  of 
faith ;  faith  is  the  completion  of  grace.  But  will  we  be  al- 
lowed to  conclude  without  meeting  with  any  objection  ? 
Will  nobody  be  found  to  tell  us  that  the  object  of  faith  is  not 


GRACE    AND    FAITH.  275 

a  disembodied  fact,  but  a  person,  even  Jesus  Christ ;  and  not 
a  part  of  Jesus  Christ  or  of  his  work,  but  of  Jesus  Christ  as 
a  whole  ?  The  question  which  the  first  preachers  of  the 
Gospel  addressed  to  their  hearers  was,  Do  you  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ  ?  and  every  one  who  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive was  from  that  instant  held  to  be  a  Christian.  We  feel 
the  weight  of  this  objection,  and  we  admit  the  principle  of  it. 
God  forbid  that  we  should  divide  Jesus  Christ !  Yes,  it  is 
indeed  Jesus  Christ,  and  Jesus  Christ  entire,  who  is  the  ob- 
ject of  faith ;  and  we  forget  not  that  he  has  been  made  of 
God  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sanctification,  and  re- 
demption ;  all  of  these  jointly,  and  none  of  them  severally. 
But  all  these  together  constitute  grace  ;  and  it  is  grace,  en- 
tire grace,  that  we  have  made  the  object  of  faith.  To  have 
faith  is  to  believe  all  those  things  of  which  the  focus,  the 
centre,  and  the  source,  is  Jesus  Christ  crucified.  The  faith 
which  would  not  believe  in  all  these  things,  and  would  not 
receive  them  all  as  grace  ;  the  faith  which  would  divide  or 
diminish  Jesus  Christ,  would  not  be  faith  ;  and  from  not  em- 
bracing its  whole  object,  we  might  in  all  truth  say  that  it 
did  not  exist.  We  have  sufficiently  shown  that  whosoever 
would  believe  in  the  grace  of  pardon  without  believing  in 
the  grace  of  regeneration,  would  not  really  believe  in  pardon, 
which  is  illusory,  without  regeneration.  Complete  faith  in- 
cludes the  conviction  that  He  who  spared  not  his  own  Son, 
but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  will  with  him  freely  give  us 
all  things ;  in  other  words,  will  not  repent  of  his  first  gift, 
nor  withdraw  it.  Under  the  name  of  grace,  therefore,  it  is 
Jesus  Christ,  and  Jesus  Christ  wholly,  that  we  have  set  forth 
as  the  object  of  faith ;  not  merely  his  Godhead,  but  his 
humanity ;  not  merely  his  death,  but  his  life  ;  not  merely 
his  doctrine,  but  his  example  ;  not  merely  his  sacrifice,  but 
his  glory  ;  for  it  is  by  all  these  things  united,  without  except- 
ing any  or  diminishing  any,  that  Christ  Jesus  is  our  Saviour, 


276  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

But  because  pardon  stands  at  the  head  of  this  work,  because 
this  work  in  all  its  parts  is  only  the  development  of  pardon, 
because  it  is  under  the  aspect  and  the  name  of  pardon  that 
this  work,  which  is  one  and  indivisible,  first, presents  itself  to 
our  view,  because  pardon  is  the  sap  which  circulates  in  all 
the  branches  of  this  immense  tree,  the  savor  diffused 
throughout  the  minutest  particles  of  this  bread  of  life — we 
have  said,  and  we  say  again,  that  pardon,  taken  with  all  its 
consequences,  and  all  its  developments,  is  the  object  of  Chris- 
tian faith.  This  is  not  to  turn  the  eye  away  from  Jesus 
Christ,  who  guarantees  pardon,  who  himself  bestows  (Matt, 
ix.  6)  and  completes  it. 

I  know  not,  brethren,  if  afler  all  we  have  said  there  will 
still  remain  some  scruple  in  those  respectable  adorers  of 
Divine  grace,  who  take  alarm  at  the  very  idea  of  seeing 
any  thing  withheld  from  it.  At  all  events,  it  would  not  be 
to  St.  Paul  that  they  would  object,  but  to  us,  as  erroneously 
interpreting  him.  St.  Paul,  indeed,  declares  that  we  are 
saved  by  faith,  or  by  means  of  faith.  What  more  have  we 
said  ?  How  could  we  even  say  more  ?  Nothing  can  be 
more  distinct,  more  precise ;  nothing  less  admits  of  being 
extended  or  restricted  than  the  words.  You  are  saved  by 
faith.  This  is  the  clearest  point  in  the  Gospel.  It  may  be 
examined  more  or  less  profoundly,  but  it  cannot  have  more 
than  one  meaning.  However  we  may  understand  it,  faith  is 
not  the  cause  of  salvation,  and  faith  is  the  condition  of  it. 
In  order  to  participate  in  the  benefit  of  the  pardon,  in  the 
fruits  of  the  Saviour's  sacrifice,  it  is  necessary  to  believe ; 
and  faith  is  a  moral  fact  which  takes  place  in  man.  We 
have  said  all  this,  but  we  have  said  no  more,  and  we  do  not 
see  how  our  exposition  can  be  repudiated  without  repudiating 
St.  Paul.  What  if  we  had  said,  That  which  is  wanting  to 
faith,  grace  supplies  ?  Well,  St.  Paul  has  said  something 
very  like  this.     "  I  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflic- 


GRACE    AND    FAITH.  277 

tions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  his  body's  sake."  Col.  i.  24. 
Now  then,  in  the  same  way,  something  is  wanting  to  grace 
so  long  as  we  have  not  faith ;  in  other  words,  God  has  not 
yet  done  all  that  he  intends  to  do  for  us.  Just  as  the  afflic- 
tions of  Christ  continue  in  each  of  his  members,  who  form 
only  one  body  with  him,  the  grace  of  God  continues  in  each 
believer  by  the  faith  which  is  also  grace.  Christ  is  in  each 
of  his  members  who  suffer ;  grace  is  in  the  soul  of  each 
sinner  who  believes.  Why  should  faith,  which  is  a  work  of 
man,  not  be  at  the  same  time  a  work  of  God  ?  Why  should 
not  he  who  has  granted  pardon  not  also  give  faith  ?  Should 
not  all  that  leads  to  God  come  from  God  ?  Where  is  the 
difficulty  of  admitting  this,  and  how  do  those  zealots  for  grace 
not  see  that  they  would  give  him  the  glory  more  entirely  by 
ceasing  to  regard  faith  as  a  merely  human  work,  and  by 
doing  homage  for  it,  as  for  every  thing  else,  to  the  Divine 
liberality.  Under  this  reservation,  which  secures  the  honor 
of  grace,  they  may  frankly  admit  the  necessity  of  faith ; 
they  may,  without  fear,  term  it  a  condition  of  salvation, 
recognize  it  as  a  work,  as  a  moral  work;  in  one  word,  think 
on  the  subject  of  faith  as  it  is  impossible  not  to  think. 

No,  brethren  ;  there  is  not  in  this  Divine  system  either 
difficulty  or  obscurity,  snare  or  scandal.  There  is  only 
solidity,  harmony, '  and  luminous  perspicuity.  But  God 
forbid  that  it  should  be  to  us  nothing  more  than  a  system, 
though  a  Divine  system  !  God  forbid  that  we  should  remain 
satisfied  with  admiration  !  Let  us  mutually  warn  each  other 
of  the  danger  of  converting  that  which  was  given  us  for  life 
into  matter  of  mere  speculation,  and,  so  to  speak,  of  pillaging 
the  truth  for  the  gratification  of  our  curiosity.  Let  us  ad- 
mire, but  let  us  bless;  let  us  admire,  but  let  us  humble 
ourselves ;  let  us  admire,  but  let  us  ask,  not  so  much  for 
the  knowledge  as  for  the  love  which  edifies.     But  let  us 


278  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

cease  not  to  say  to  ourselves,  and  every  where  proclaim, 
that  the  Gospel  is  divinely  rational,  that  it  is  wisdom  among 
the  perfect,  that  it  is  equally  fitted  to  give  to  the  simple  wis- 
dom, and  to  the  wise  simplicity. 


WRATH  AND  PRAYER. 


**  I  will  therefore  that  men  pray  every  where,  lifting  up  holy  hands, 
without  wrath  and  doubting  [French,  contestations,  disputing]." — I 
Tim.  ii.  8. 

Prayer  is  represented  in  the  Gospel  as  a  holy  and  solemn 
act,  which  we  cannot  surround  with  too  many  safeguards,  in 
order  to  prevent  any  thing  of  a  profane  and  worldly  nature 
from  interfering  with  the  reverential  freedom  of  this  converse 
"between  the  creature  and  its  Creator.  If  prayer  is  most 
frequently  represented  by  the  sacred  writers  as  the  means  of 
the  Christian  life,  their  language  at  times  almost  seems  to 
imply,  that  prayer  is  the  end,  and  that  it  is  necessary  alter- 
nately to  pray  in  order  to  live  like  Christians,  and  live  like 
Christians  in  order  to  be  able  to  pray.  Prayer  prepares  for 
acts  of  self-denial,  courage  and  charity,  and  these  in  their 
turn  prepare  for  prayer.  No  one  should  be  surprised  at  this 
double  relation  between  prayer  and  life.  Is  it  not  natural 
that  we  should  retire  to  be  with  God,  that  we  may  renew 
our  sense  of  his  presence,  draw  on  the  treasures  of  light  and 
strength  which  he  opens  to  every  heart  that  implores  him,  and 
afterwards  return  to  active  life,  better  provided  with  love  and 
wisdom  ?     On  the  other  hand  is  it  not  natural  that  we  should 


280  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

prepare  by  purity  of  conduct  to  lift  up  pure  hands  to  God, 
and  carefully  keep  aloof  from  every  thing  that  might  render 
this  important  and  necessary  act  either  difficult,  or  formida- 
ble, or  useless  ?  Still,  brethren,  though  it  is  scarcely  possible 
to  have  one  of  these  convictions  without  having  the  other 
also,  we  may  say  that  the  former  of  these  truths  is  less  felt 
than  the  second  ;  that  to  make  prayer  an  end,  and  regulate 
our  life  by  the  thought  of  that  solemn  moment,  supposes  a 
progress  in  the  paths  of  piety  and  a  delicacy  of  Christian 
sentiment  which  can  only  be  attained  by  degrees.  However, 
when  prayer  has  become  a  habit,  and  we  set  apart  certain 
portions  of  the  day  when  we  are  to  be  alone  with  God,  the 
near  prospect  of  a  meeting  which  is  always  formidable  even 
in  its  mildest  form,  is  well  fitted  to  keep  vigilance  awake, 
and  suppress  the  movements  of  passion  or  concupiscence  ; 
and,  provided  this  act  of  prayer  has  not  degenerated  into 
Pharisaical  observance,  nothing,  unquestionably,  is  more 
proper  to  exercise  a  mild  discipline  over  our  whole  life  in  its 
minutest  details.  It  is  with  this  conviction,  and  probably 
from  this  experience,  that  the  venerable  Apostle  St.  Peter 
recommends  parents  to  use  meekness  and  indulgence  in  their 
domestic  relations  in  order,  he  says,  that  their  prayers  be  not 
hindered ;  and  when  St.  Paul,  in  our  text,  exhorts  men 
every  where  to  lift  up  pure  hands  without  wrath  and  dispu- 
tation, his  meaning  certainly  is  not  that  wrath  and  disputation 
ought  ever  to  mingle  with  the  act  of  prayer,  (that  is  self- 
evident,)  but  he  means  that  a  disposition  which  is  too  natural 
to  all  persons,  and  too  habitual  to  some  of  them,  and  which 
opposition  from  without  tends  always  to  awaken  in  the 
calmest  and  most  moderate  minds,  that  this  disposition  to 
wrath  and  disputation  ought  to  be  watched  over  and  repressed 
with  the  greatest  care,  in  order  that  when  the  moment  for 
prayer  arrives,  we  may  be  able  to  lift  up  pure  hands  to 
heaven. 


WRATH    AND    PRAYER.  281 

But,  dear  brethren,  we  cannot  help  seeing  something 
more  in  the  apostle's  mind.  The  words  introduced  at  the 
end  of  the  verse  so  unexpectedly,  and  which  we  believe,  for 
a  moment,  excite  surprise  in  every  reader;  these  words, 
*' without  wrath  and  doubting,"  contain  a  very  marked  and 
impressive  allusion  to  the  circumstances  in  which  Christians 
were  then  placed.  It  would  perhaps  require  us  to  be  in  a 
situation  similar  to  theirs  to  feel  all  the  force  and  beauty  of 
the  recommendation  which  the  apostles  are  continually  giv- 
ing to  their  disciples  to  pray  for  all  men,  and  especially  for 
the  powerful  of  the  earth,  in  other  words,  their  natural  ene- 
mies. When  St.  Paul  says  to  the  Philippians,  "  Let  your 
moderation  be  known  unto  all  men,"  he  gives  a  precept  of 
charity  which  the  malevolent,  if  it  came  to  their  knowledge, 
might  mistake  for  a  counsel  of  prudence.  But  if  being  made 
acquainted  with  the  secret  correspondence  of  the  Apostles 
they  find  these  words,  "  I  exhort,  therefore,  that  first  of  all 
supplications,  prayers,  and  intercessions,"  (see  how  the 
Apostle  repeats  from  the  overflowings  of  charity,)  "  and  giv- 
ing of  thanks  be  made  for  all  men,"  (nothing  is  forgotten, 
God  must  be  thanked  for  his  favors  to  them  as  if  they  had 
been  granted  to  ourselves,)  for  kings  and  all  that  are  in  au- 
thority ;  that  we  may  lead  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life  in  all 
godliness  and  honesty  ;"  if  in  addition  to  this  motive  so  ra- 
tional and  pure  they  find  this  other  motive  so  elevated  and 
impressive,  "  for  this  is  good  and  acceptable  in  the  sight  of 
our  God  and  Saviour,  who  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved, 
and  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  For  there  is  one 
God  and  one  Mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  man 
Christ  Jesus,  who  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all :"  if,  then, 
men  learn  from  these  noble  words  that  Christians, behold  in 
all  men,  even  in  their  persecutors,  only  brethren,  whom  we 
must  encourage  on  their  way  to  heaven,  and  carry  along 
with  us  by  the  effort  and  holy  violence  of  our  prayers  even 


282  -  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

to  the  footstool  of  our  Father  who  is  willing  to  be  also  theirs ; 
if  they  see  that  in  the  fearful  struggle  in  which  the  disciples 
of  the  Redeemer  are  engaged  with  the  world  the  highest 
rule  of  their  conduct  is  charity,  the  deepest  secret  of  their 
policy  is  intercession,  O,  brethren  !  what  will  they  say  ? 
what  can  they  say  ?  They  nnay  still  accuse  them  of  folly, 
but  that  is  all ;  and  what  an  eulogium,  or  rather,  what 
homage  is  such  an  accusation  !  Now,  beloved,  this  grand 
idea,  intercession  for  enemies  and  persecutors,  is  that  which 
occupies  St.  Paul  in  this  passage,  is  that  with  which  his 
mind  is  filled  when  he  says  to  Timothy  in  our  text,  "  I  will, 
therefore,  that  men  pray  every  where,  lifting  up  holy  hands, 
without  wrath  and  doubting."  We  must  now  understand 
the  meaning  of  the  concluding  words  ;  they  are  replete  with 
prudence  and  delicacy.  The  Apostle  has  not  said  that  these 
kings,  these  mighty,  and  in  general,  all  these  men  not  con- 
verted to  Christianity,  will  be,  and  already  are,  the  enemies 
and  persecutors  of  Christianity.  He  has  no  wish  to  enlarge 
or  envenom  the  sore  ;  he  scarcely  even  alludes  to  it ;  and 
instead  of  mentioning  the  causes  of  wrath  and  disputation 
which  believers  may  meet  within  the  opposition  of  the  world, 
it  is  merely  of  this  wrath  and  disputation  that  he  speaks ; 
these  dispositions  only  he  attends  to  and  attacks.  His  chief 
business  is  not  to  judge  those  who  give  trouble  to  the  souls 
of  Christians  ;  it  is  this  trouble  that  he  condemns,  be  its 
cause  or  pretext  what  it  may,  and  suppressing  or  neglecting 
superfluous  explanations,  he  seems  to  say  to  his  disciples, 
"  All  that  you  may  experience  on  the  part  of  man  may  pro- 
duce in  you,  according  as  you  have  or  have  not  the  Spirit  of 
God,  two  very  different  results  :  either  irritate  you  and  dis- 
pose you  to  disputation,  or  excite  to  prayer  ;  kindle  in  you 
the  flame  of  hatred,  or  that  of  charity  ;  give  food  to  the  old 
man,  or  exercise  to  the  new  ;  make  you  advance  or  fall 
back  on  the  path  on  which  God  has  made  you  enter.     The 


WRATH   AND   PRAYER.  283 

question  is  anew  brought  before  you  at  every  new  attack  of 
your  enemies ;  in  other  words,  every  new  attack  will  neces- 
sarily tempt  you  to  wrath  and  disputation  as  you  are  men,  if 
it  do  not  urge  you  to  prayer  as  you  are  Christians.  You 
cannot  escape  from  wrath  except  by  prayer,  nor  from  hatred 
except  by  love  ;  and  not  to  be  a  murderer,  since  hatred  is 
murder,  you  must  as  much  as  in  you  lies  give  life  to  him  to 
whom  you  wished  to  give  death.  At  least  it  is  necessary  to 
ask  it  for  him,  it  is  necessary  by  your  prayers  to  beget  him 
to  a  new  existence  ;  it  is  necessary  in  all  cases,  while  pray- 
ing for  him,  to  exert  yourselves  in  loving  him.  It  is  ne- 
cessary that  wrath  'end  disputation  be  extinguished  and  die 
away  in  prayer." 

Brethren,  in  applying  to  your  varied  circumstances  the 
precept  which  Paul  addressed  to  the  first  Christians  in  cir- 
cumstances which  ours  do  not  in  all  instances  resemble,  I 
would  now,  agreeably  to  the  words  of  the  holy  Apostle,  insist 
on  the  obligation  under  which  we  all  lie,  whatever  be  our 
situation,  whatever  our  relations  in  life,  to  substitute  interces- 
sory prayer  for  wrath  and  disputation.  I  will  endeavor  to 
prove  that  it  is,  as  St.  Paul  expresses  it,  good  and  acceptable 
to  God. 

Two  classes  of  men  may  excite  in  us  wrath  and  disputa- 
tion. The  former  are  the  enemies  of  our  persons,  those  who 
from  interest,  envy,  or  revenge,  are  opposed  to  our  happiness, 
and  more  generally  all  those  who  have  done  us  wrong,  or 
against  whom  we  have  ground  of  complaint.  The  latter  are 
those  who  become  our  enemies  from  the  opposition  of  their 
views  and  opinions  to  ours,  or  the  opposition  of  their  conduct 
to  our  wishes.  Both  are  to  us  occasions  of  wrath  and  dispu- 
tation. The  Gospel  requires  that  they  be  to  us  occasions  of 
prayer. 

In  regard  to  the  former,  I  mean  our  personal  enemies,  I 
might  simply  observe  that  God  does  not  know  them  as  our 


284  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

enemies.  God  does  not  enter  into  our  passions,  or  espouse 
our  resentments.  He  sanctions  and  approves  all  the  rela- 
tions which  he  has  himself  created,  those  of  parent  and  child, 
husband  and  wife,  sovereign  and  subject.  But  the  impious 
relation  of  enemy  to  enemy  is  entirely  our  work,  or  rather 
the  work  of  the  devil.  God  knows  it  only  to  denounce  it. 
Besides,  in  his  eye  the  whole  body  of  mankind  are  only  men, 
and  some,  in  the  relation  which  they  stand  to  each  other,  only 
brethren.  He  has  no  ear,  therefore,  for  our  presumptuous 
distinctions  when  we  say,  or  seem  to  say,  This  is  my  friend, 
I  will  pray  for  him ;  that  is  my  enemy,  he  shall  have  no  part 
in  my  prayers.  In  your  enemies  he  sees  only  brethren,  and 
therefore  you  ought  not  to  see  any  thing  else.  Has  he  not 
said  by  the  mouth  of  his  Apostle,  that  supplications  should  be 
made  for  all  men,  and  do  you  think  he  has  excepted  your 
enemies  ?  Do  you  not  think  that  if  the  Apostle  had  devel- 
oped his  thought,  and  enumerated  all  the  classes  of  persons 
for  whom  you  ought  to  pray,  he  would  have  given  your  ene- 
mies a  first  place  in  the  enumeration  ?  Has  he  not  done  so 
without  saying  it,  when  he  exhorts  the  first  Christians  to  in- 
tercede for  the  very  persons  from  whom  they  had  the  greatest 
cause  for  fear  and  the  strongest  grounds  of  hatred  ?  In  fine, 
and  this  doubtless  suffices,  and  is  better  than  all  arguments, 
has  not  Jesus  Christ  himself  recommended  you  to  pray  for 
them  that  despitefully  use  you  and  persecute  you,  and  has  he 
not  actually  furnished  you  with  the  example  ?  You  wish, 
however,  to  draw  a  distinction,  and  remain  in  what  you  call 
the  common  path ;  but  the  extraordinary  is  the  rule  in  the 
kingdom  of  God.  You  would  wish  to  pray  for  your  friends 
alone ;  but  this  very  prayer  is  forbidden,  and  remains  im- 
possible, if  you  do  not  extend  it  to  your  enemies.  And  if  you 
persist  in  excluding  them  from  your  prayers,  be  assured  that 
God  will  not  even  accept  those  which  you  offer  to  him  in  be- 
half of  the  persons  whom  you  love.     Your  supplications  will 


WRATH    AND    PRAYER.  285 

be  rejected  ;  the  smoke  of  your  offering  will  fall  back  upon 
your  offering ;  your  desires  will  not  reach  that  paternal  heart 
which  is  ever  open.  What  do  I  say  ?  With  such  feelings 
could  you  even,  pray  ?  Could  a  heart  hardened  and  con- 
tracted by  sin  send  forth  those  ardent  sighs  of  which  the  poet 
speaks,  sighs  which 

"  Sacr^s  pour  Dieu  lui-meme, 

Vont  flechir  dans  le  ciel  la  charite  supreme." 

Ah  !  lov^  can  only  be  understood  by  love  ;  there  is  no  fel- 
lowship between  love  and  hatred.  Love  !  love  !  and  you 
will  be  able  to  pray. 

But  this  is  not  all,  brethren.  Not  only  ought  we  to  pray 
for  our  enemies,  although  they  be  our  enemies;  but  we 
ought  to  pray  for  them  because  they  are  our  enemies.  As 
soon  as  they  again  become  to  us  like  the  rest  of  mankind 
another  distinction  takes  place,  and  a  new  right  arises  in  their 
favor.  They  are  confounded  for  a  moment  with  all  our 
other  fellows,  in  order  afterwards  to  stand  forth  from  the 
general  mass  as  privileged  beings,  with  a  special  title  to  our 
prayers.  An  enemy  !  In  regard  to  the  Christian,  then,  is  an 
enemy  nothing  ?  May  he  be  confounded  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  ?  And  is  nothing  more  due  to  him  than  to  a  stranger? 
What  is  our  enemy  but  a  wretched  man  like  ourselves, 
whose  misery  we  know  better  than  we  know  that  of  any 
other  man  ?  Far  from  deluding  ourselves  with  a  favorable 
idea  of  his  state,  we  probably  exaggerate  his  danger.  In  our 
eye  his  faults  are  increased  by  all  the  evil  which  he  has  done 
us,  and  all  which  he  wishes  to  do.  And  on  this  ground  is 
not  this  man,  whose  misery  and  wants  we  know  so  well,  one 
of  the  first  whom  we  ought  to  recommend  to  the  love  of  our 
heavenly  Father  ?  The  more  he  has  hurt  us,  the  more  he 
must  seem  deserving  of  pity,  and  consequently  the  more  in- 
terest he  ought  to  excite  in  our  heart,  the  more  is  he  entitled 


286  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

to  a  place  in  our  prayers.  Think  well  of  this  and  you  will 
see  that  it  is  not  an  ingenious  idea,  but  the  truth.  You  ad- 
mit  that  the  Christian  may  not  hate  ;  how  then  can  you  re- 
fuse to  admit  that  an  enemy  is  only  one  whose  misery  is 
better  known  to  him,  and  who  thereby  has  a  special  claim 
on  his  assistance  ? 

When  we  meet  with  an  opposition  which  frets  and  irri- 
tates us.  Christian  prudence  counsels  us  to  pray  that  the 
temptation  may  be  removed ;  and,  in  particular,  that  our 
self-love  and  injured  feelings  may  not  weaken  our  love  for 
our  neighbor.  But  this  prudence,  dear  brethren,  if  it  coun- 
sels nothing  further,  is  not  prudent  enough.  If  the  same 
feeling  which  disposes  us  to  pray  does  not  dispose  us  to  pray 
for  our  enemies  or  opponents,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  it 
is  a  movement  of  charity.  Charity  cannot  be  thus  arrested. 
Its  nature  is  to  overcome  evil  with  good,  and  this  means  not 
merely  that  it  does  not  render  evil  for  evil,  but  that  in  return 
for  evil  it  renders  good.  It  would  not  be  charity  if  it  did 
less.  Its  first  step  overleaps  the  imaginary  limit  which  it 
does  not  even  see  or  know.  It  does  not  restrict  itself  to  not 
hating ;  it  loves.  It  would  not  do  enough  if  it  did  not  do 
more  than  enough.  To  pardon  truly  it  is  necessary  to  do 
more  than  pardon.  Evil  must  be  overcome  by  good  ;  and 
after  the  example  of  God  himself,  where  the  offence  has 
abounded,  grace  must  much  more  abound.  Is  not  this  to 
say,  brethren,  that  pardoning,  sparing,  loving,  all  these  du- 
ties are  secured  in  the  person  offended  only  when  he  prays 
for  the  offender  ?  Can  we  admit  that  a  soul  is  truly  impelled 
by  the  love  of  Christ,  and  that  it  has  pardoned  in  a  spirit  of 
true  charity,  while  the  noble  desire  which  it  feels  does  not 
seek  to  satisfy  itself  by  the  means  most  within  its  reach,  the 
means  which  are  surest  and  most  perfect  ?  that  while  able  to 
speak  to  God,  it  speaks  not  to  Him  of  the  enemy  whom  it 
pities  and  loves  ?  that  this  movement  is  not  confounded,  so  to 


WRATH    AND    PRAYER.  287 

speak,  with  the  jEirst  movement  of  charity,  and  that  for  fear 
of  again  falling  into  resentment  and  hatred,  it  does  not  hasten 
to  give  a  sacredness  to  its  enemy  by  recommending  him  to 
God,  and  thus  attaching  him  to  itself  by  a  new  and  sublime 
relation  '?  Can  we  renew  our  hatred  for  one  for  whom  we 
have  prayed  ?  Does  not  every  desire,  every  request  which 
we  send  up  to  God  for  him  endear  him  to  us  the  more  ? 
Does  not  each  prayer  set  him  more  beyond  the  reach  of  our 
passions  ?  And  if  we  did  less,  could  we  be  sure  that  we 
would  not  again  begin  to  hate  ?  No,  brethren  ;  not  till 
then  is  the  work  of  mercy  accomplished.  We  have  no 
evidence  of  having  pardoned  an  enemy  until  we  have  prayed 
for  him. 

After  this,  I  ask,  what  could  imprison  or  suppress  in  our 
heart  that  intercession,  without  which  we  are  not  sure  of 
having  pardoned  our  neighbor,  or  rather  without  which  we 
are  sure  that  we  have  not  pardoned  him  ?  For  to  allege  the 
gravity,  the  extent  of  the  offence  which  we  have  received, 
has  no  plausibility.  If  we  have  brought  ourselves  to  pardon 
him  who  has  committed  it,  we  might  surely  bring  ourselves 
to  pray  for  him  ;  and  if  we  cannot  pray  for  him  we  have  not 
pardoned  him.  An  offence  !  But  think  well  of  it ;  can  we 
really  be  offended  ?  The  term  is  too  lofty,  too  grand  for  us. 
The  offence  may  have  grated  very  painfully  on  our  feelings, 
or  thwarted  our  interests,  but  it  has  gone  no  farther.  What- 
ever injustice  may  have  been  done  us,  whatever  cause  we 
may  have  to  complain,  that  is  not  the  real  evil.  What  evil 
absolutely  is  there  in  having  our  faith  tried  and  our  patience 
exercised  ?  Because  our  fortune  has  been  curtailed,  our  re- 
putation compromised,  our  affections  thwarted,  does  the  world 
go  on  less  regularly  than  it  did  ?  Not  at  all.  The  evil,  the 
only  real  evil  is  the  sin  of  that  soul,  the  infraction  of  the 
eternal  law,  the  violence  offered  to  divine  order;  and  if  any 
Other  evil  is  to  be  added  to  this,  it  will  be  by  our  murmur- 


288  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

ings,  since  the  effect  of  them  will  be  to  make  two  sinners  in 
place  of  one.  Do  you  then  seek  a  reason  for  refusing  your 
intercession,  and  consequently  your  pardon  to  your  adversa- 
ries ?  I  have  found  one,  and  it  is  a  fit  ground  for  resentment : 
God  your  Father  was  insulted  in  the  insult  which  you  expe- 
rienced.  But  show  me,  pray,  the  extraordinary  man  who, 
quite  ready  to  pardon  on  his  own  account,  cannot  resolve  to 
pardon  on  God's  account !  Ah !  this  man  never  has  been 
met  with,  and  never  shall !  For,  if  he  is  in  a  state  to  pray  for 
an  enemy,  he  knows  God ;  and  if  he  knows  God,  he  knows 
that  vengeance  belongeth  unto  him,  and  that  men  are  not  per- 
mitted to  be  angry  on  his  account,  any  more  than  their  own. 
If  we  know  God  we  also  know  ourselves,  and  we  are  too 
deeply  penetrated  with  the  feeling  of  our  own  unworthiness, 
we  have  too  recent  a  remembrance  of  having  been  the  ene- 
mies of  God,  to  feel  in  regard  to  other  enemies,  or  other  re- 
bellious children  of  God,  any  other  sentiment  than  that  of 
pity.  It  may  belong  to  God  to  be  angry  with  them ;  us  it 
becomes  only  to  pity  them,  and  pity  them  the  more,  the  more 
grievously  God  has  been  offended.  This  God,  moreover, 
who  has  exhorted  and  taught  us  to  pardon,  is  undoubtedly  a 
God  who  pardons.  Punishment  is  his  strange  work.  His 
anger,  all  divine,  takes  nothing  from  his  love.  Were  he 
man,  he  would  pray  for  these  enemies  of  his  will.  Jesus 
Christ,  his  Son,  whom  zeal  for  his  Father's  honor  devoured, 
prayed  for  the  enemies  of  his  Father.  So  far,  therefore,  is 
God  from  forbidding  our  intercession,  that  he  himself  by  his 
Spirit  forms  within  us  in  behalf  of  his  enemies,  groanings 
which  cannot  be  uttered.  Thus,  brethren,  if  in  a  certain 
sense  we  say  with  David,  "  Do  I  not  hate  them  that  hate 
thee  V  (Ps.  cxxxix.  21)  like  David  also  we  pray  for  them. 
Ps.  ix.  4.  Ah !  so  far  will  the  view  of  God  as  offended  at 
our  offence  be  from  stifling  in  our  heart  a  rising  prayer,  that, 
on  the  contrary,  this  holy  sorrow  will   draw  us  away  from 


WRATH    Ai\'U    PIIAYEK.  289 

our  selfish  and  carnal  sorrow.  I  mean,  brethren,  that  the 
more  our  personal  resentment  is  effaced  in  the  sadness  of 
seeing  our  Father  offended,  the  weak  scandalized,  the  seeds 
of  sin  multiplied,  the  empire  of  darkness  extended,  the  more 
will  our  heart  be  free  to  pardon,  to  love,  and  to  pray.  When 
the  first  cry  of  nature  within  us  shall  have  been  suppressed 
by  the  sighing  of  that  grief  which  made  the  prophet  exclaim, 
''  Rivers  of  water  run  down  mine  eyes,  because  they  keep 
not  thy  law  ;"  "  My  zeal  hath  consumed  me,  because  mine 
enemies  have  forgotten  thy  words,"  (Ps.  cxix.  136,  139,) 
then  shall  we  be  so  much  the  more  sensible  of  the  misery  of 
that  enemy  whom  God  has  taught  us  to  love,  and  whom  he 
himself  loves;  then  our  first  desire  after  having  cried  unto 
God,  "  Not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  thy  name , 
give  glory,"  (Ps.  cxv.  1,)  will  be  to  exclaim,  after  the  ex- 
ample of  St.  Stephen,  "  Lord,  lay  not  this  sin  to  their 
charge!"  (Acts  vii.  60,)  and  after  the  example  of  the  divine 
Redeemer,  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what 
they  do  !"    Luke  xxiii.  34. 

But  alas  !  (and  here,  brethren,  give  us  all  your  attention.) 
instead  of  seeing  in  the  injury  which  we  have  received  only 
an  injury  done  to  God,  we  insolently  appropriate  to  ourselves 
the  offence  of  which  he  alone  is  the  object.  In  what  hurts 
him  we  feel  ourselves  offended,  and  consequently  become 
angry,  instead  of  being  grieved.  It  will  be  well,  if  instead 
of  praying,  we  have  not  cursed !  Yes !  this  religion,  to 
which  God  has  condescended  to  attach  us,  we  regard  as  our 
own  property,  as  the  subject  of  our  self-love,  our  earthly 
heritage  ;  it  is  an  opinion  which  we  have  espoused,  a  posi- 
tion which  we  have  taken  up.  We  ought  to  belong  to  it,  not 
it  to  us  ;  and  when  we  see  it  insulted  or  menaced,  it  is  not  so 
much  our  piety  that  grieves,  as  it  is  our  self-love  that  storms 
and  rages.  The  very  certainty  of  our  faith  only  serves  to 
put  Qur  passions  naore  at  ease.  We  feel  happy  in  giving  full 
14 


290  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

scope  to  our  hatred  or  our  pride  under  the  cover  of  our  zeal. 
We  even  go  the  length  of  rejoicing  in  injustice,  not  that  we 
have  been  counted  worthy  to  suffer  for  the  cause  of  God,  but 
because  it  is  injustice,  and  injustice  from  which  we  are  exempt. 
An  injustice,  good  God  !  Injustice  to  us!  What  shall  we 
think  of  it  if  we  one  day  see  it  as  it  is,  or  as  it  was  ?  What 
will  we  think  of  all  those  precipitate  and  rash  judgments,  of 
that  eagerness  to  believe  evil,  those  refusals  of  all  explana- 
tion, those  anathemas  ill  disguised  under  expressions  of  pity, 
that  criminal  industry  which  we  have  exerted  in  fanning  the 
flame  which,  though  we  might  not  be  able  to  extinguish,  we 
might  certainly  abstain  from  fanning  ?  What  will  we  think 
of  all  this  when  our  eyes  will  be  opened  ?  And  which  of  the 
two  positions  will  appear  worse,  that  of  the  unhappy  beings 
who  attacked  the  truth,  or  that  of  the  men  who  defended  it 
with  poisoned  weapons  ?  Ah !  if  the  attacks  of  the  enemies 
of  religion  is  not  a  signal  for  our  charity  as  well  as  a  call 
upon  our  zeal,  if  we  do  not  then  feel  the  love  of  Christ  con- 
straining us,  if  our  compassion  is  not  doubled  for  the  unhappy 
adversaries  of  the  truth,  if  we  do  not  feel  a  sincere  desire  to 
view  their  conduct  in  the  least  unfavorable  light,  and  excuse 
them  to  ourselves ;  if  these  men,  of  whom,  perhaps,  till  then 
we  have  made  no  mention  in  our  prayers,  do  not  from  that 
moment  become  the  special  and  privileged  object  of  them,  it 
is  certainly  high  time  to  look  within,  and  ask  whether  till 
now  we  have  truly  believed,  and  whether,  under  the  name 
of  religion,  we  have  ought  else  than  a  system  or  an  opinion. 
Enough  has  been  said,  brethren,  to  establish  the  duty 
which  we  have  in  view.  But  to  the  consideration  of  the  duty 
is  added  that  of  a  near  and  important  interest.  Even  when 
we  do  not  hate,  the  idea  of  an  enemy  fills  us  with  bitterness  ; 
and  whether  or  not  he  inspires  us  with  fear,  there  is  some- 
thing repulsive  both  in  the  memory  of  his  past  offences  and 
in  the  idea  of  those  which  he  may  be  preparing  to  commit, 


WRATH    AND    PRAYER.  291 

We  stand  so  much  in  need  of  love  and  esteem,  that  the 
thought  of  a  single  being  withholding  it  from  us  is  felt  by 
the  soul  to  be  a  gnawing  worm,  resembling  remorse.  But 
when  we  have  prayed  for  him  we  no  longer  regard  him 
as  the  same  man  ;  he  is  no  longer  our  enemy,  he  is  our 
protege  ;  and  as  it  is  natural  to  feel  attached  to  the  good  we 
do,  we  henceforth  feel  pleasure  in  thinking  of  him  ;  we  feel 
pleased  in  following  up  our  first  favor,  and  consolidating  it 
by  new  prayers.  This  idea  elevates  without  producing 
pride.  It  gives  us  strength  to  bear  the  new  attacks  of  his 
hatred  without  murmuring  and  resentment.  If  we  are 
forced  to  have  relations  with  him,  it  instils  a  meekness  into 
our  proceedings,  of  which  he  will,  perhaps,  ultimately  be- 
come sensible.  It  disposes  us  to  recognize  any  faults  we 
may  have  committed,  to  confess  them  candidly,  and  repair 
them ;  and  though  such  a  conduct  should  not  mitigate  his 
enmity,  how  much  will  it  not  contribute  to  set  our  soul  at 
rest? 

Contrast  the  ordinary  fruits  of  wrath  and  debate  with 
these  results  of  prayer.  In  yielding  to  the  former,  not  only 
do  you  place  yourself  in  opposition  to  the  holy  law  of  God, 
but  you  destroy  the  peace  of  your  life  and  the  peace  of  your 
soul ;  you  aggravate  the  evils  of  a  situation  already  de- 
plorable ;  you  kindle  up  hatred  in  the  heart  of  your  enemy; 
you  render  reconciliation  on  his  part,  as  well  as  on  yours, 
always  more  difficult ;  you  run  from  sin  to  sin  in  order  to 
lull  your  pride,  and  this  pride  gives  you  only  a  bitter, 
poisoned,  and  criminal  enjoyment.  How  much  better,  then, 
is  prayer  than  wrath  and  strife  ! 

But  personal  enemies  are  not  the  only  ones  who  are  to 
us  the  occasion  of  wrath  and  strife.  The  class  of  enemies, 
as  we  have  already  said,  includes  all  those  whose  opinions, 
views,  and  conduct  are  in  opposition  to  our  interests  or  our 
principles.      How   little  does   the   impatience  which   they 


292  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

excite  differ  from  hatred  !  That  produced  by  our  personal 
enemies  is  often  less  vivid.  Look  to  the  mutual  exaspera- 
tion of  parties  and  sects.  Look  to  those  wars  of  opinion, 
the  most  cruel  of  all,  and  which  death  alone  terminates. 
Certainly,  if  this  is  not  hatred,  if  these  are  not  enemies, 
there  is  neither  hatred  nor  enmity  in  the  world. 

With  regard  to  such  enemies,  our  usual  method  is  to 
hate  in  silence  if  we  feel  ourselves  weak,  or  to  dispute 
obstinately  if  we  believe  ourselves  strong.  The  Gospel 
proposes  another  method.  It  approves  neither  of  hatred  nor 
strife.  Not  that  it  authorizes  a  careless  indifference  ;  not 
that  indignation  may  not  become  the  Christian  as  it  became 
our  Lord  himself,  when  the  fearful  epithets  ofyboZ*  and  hypo- 
crites escaped  from  his  lips ;  not  that  it  is  not  proper  to  stand 
boldly  up  in  defence  of  truth  and  righteousness,  and  become 
spiritually  the  foe  of  their  foes.  To  act  otherwise  were  to 
disavow  our  fathers,  condemn  the  apostles,  and  deny  Christ. 
But  the  wrath  of  man  and  the  spirit  of  strife,  which  pride 
enkindles,  have  nothing  in  common  with  those  noble  com- 
bats. Zeal,  courage,  perseverance,  indignation  itself,  must 
all  be  pervaded  with  charity,  or  rather,  proceed  from  charity. 
Indignation  and  prayer  must  spring  from  a  common  source; 
the  former  from  love  to  God,  the  latter  from  love  to  men, 
and  consequently  both  from  love. 

How  widely  different  is  this  conduct  from  that  which  is 
commonly  pursued  in  the  world  !  Let  Government  commit 
an  error,  it  is  greedily  laid  hold  of  and  bitterly  commented 
on  ;  and  this  is  all  that  is  done.  Let  a  religious  teacher  pro- 
fess a  system  which  is  judged  dangerous;  his  minutest  ex- 
pressions are  laid  hold  of,  and  isolated  so  as  to  distort  their 
meaning ;  his  life  is  boldly  explained  by  his  opinions,  or  his 
opinions  by  his  life,  and  there  the  matter  rests.  Let  an  in- 
dividual, who  by  his  position  and  mode  of  thinking  has  fixed 
attention,  hazard  an  imprudent  step,  but  perhaps  imprudent 


WRATH    AND    PRAYER.  293 

from  excess  of  candor,  the  alarm  is  sounded,  the  public  is 
deafened  with  insulting  clamor,  the  whole  passions  are  aroused 
against  an  insignificant  fact,  often  against  a  Avord  ;  the  mi- 
croscope of  hatred  is  placed  before  the  eye,  and  kept  there. 
In  this  burst  of  indignation  he  is  considered  moderate  and 
clement  who  substitutes  for  wrath  cool  and  insulting  derision. 
Let  one  of  our  kindred,  or  only  one  of  our  acquaintance, 
setting  too  little  value  on  our  counsel  or  our  example,  proceed 
in  the  education  of  his  children,  or  the  conduct  of  his  affairs, 
or  the  habits  of  his  life,  on  another  system  than  that  of  which 
we  had  shown  him  the  advantages  ;  let  him  presume  to  think, 
speak,  and  act  differently  from  us ;  this  is  often  quite  enough 
to  make  him  more  odious  to  us  than  the  man  by  whom  we 
have  been  directly  and  voluntarily  offended ;  a  humiliating 
weakness  more  common  than  is  believed,  a  hidden  and  pro- 
found source  of  the  most  bitter  hatred  !  This  deadly  poison 
is  fostered  in  silence  and  intoxicates  in  secret ;  the  error 
makes  us  unhappy,  but  not  from  compassionating  it.  It  is 
hated  not  as  an  error,  but  as  an  opinion  opposed  to  our  own. 
Were  it  truth,  it  would  be  hated  all  the  same,  and  for  the 
same  reason.  This  is  all  that  we  feel,  and  all  that  we  be- 
think ourselves  of  doin§  in  behalf  of  this  brother,  though  we 
think  that  he  is  much  to  be  pitied.  His  condition  made  an 
appeal  to  our  charity,  and  the  appeal  has  been  answered  by 
our  self-love.  Thus  in  the  errors  of  our  brethren,  which  are, 
however,  misfortunes,  every  thing  supplies  food  to  the  spirit 
of  wrath  and  the  desire  of  strife.  To  pray,  brethren,  to  en- 
treat the  Lord  to  shed  his  enlightening  Spirit  on  this  govern- 
ment, on  that  teacher,  on  that  individual ;  to  wrestle  for  them 
in  presence  of  the  Divine  mercy,  ah  !  this  is  what  is  seldom 
thought  of  And  how  should  we  do  this  if  we  do  not  love  ? 
How  should  we  do  it  if  we  rejoice  in  unrighteousness  rather 
than  in  truth  ;  if  that  abuse,  that  vice,  that  error,  with  which 
we  seem  angry,  is  in  reality  only  a  mine  which  we  take- 
pleasure  in  explodini? ;  if  so  far  from  hastening  to  apply  a 


294  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

remedy,  we  would  rather  prolong  the  disease  as  a  perennial 
source  of  complaint  and  declamation? 

Where  are  those  friends  of  Divine  truth  on  whom  every 
irregularity  in  regard  to  the  law  of  God  inflicts  suffering  ? 
Where  are  those  charitable  hearts  whom  the  sins  of  their 
brethren  seriously  afflict,  and  who,  with  the  same  sincerity 
and  the  same  solicitude  with  which  they  would  pray  for 
themselves,  present  the  miseries  and  wants  of  their  enemies 
at  their  heavenly  Father's  footstool  ?  There  are  such  per- 
sons undoubtedly,  thank  God  ;  there  are  persons  who  silently 
and  modestly  perform  this  office  of  charity  every  day.  Un- 
known benefactors  of  the  world  are  those  who  obtain  from  the 
goodness  of  God  that  immortal  balm  which  calms  resentment, 
mitigates  hatred,  extinguishes  wrath.  To  them,  without 
knowing  it,  society  owes  the  reparation  of  injustice,  the  cor- 
rection of  error,  the  triumph  of  truth.  It  is  they  whose 
hands,  stretched  towards  heaven,  procure  protection  to  a 
world  which  perhaps  misrepresents  them,  or  at  most  knows 
them  not.  It  is  by  them  that  the  kingdom  of  God,  trammel- 
led by  so  many  obstacles,  gradually  makes  way  upon  the 
earth  which  it  will  one  day  completely  overrun.  To  this 
obscure  power,  to  this  unknown  influence,  are  due  the  nu- 
merous blessings  of  which  a  restless  and  turbulent  activity  ap- 
propriates all  the  glory.  One  man,  usefully  pursuing  a 
course  at  first  beset  with  thorns,  another  from  whom  painful 
trials  have  suddenly  been  removed  far  away ;  a  third,  who, 
apparently  shunned  by  truth  and  peace,  has  at  last  found 
them,  owe  it  all  to  the  obscure  intervention  of  a  man  whom 
they  never  saw,  or  whom  they  pass  without  noticing  or  sus- 
pecting that  by  him  they  are  noticed  ;  of  a  man  in  such  mean 
circumstances  that  it  seems  impossible  they  can  ever  owe  him 
any  thing.  Such  is  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  and  if  the  num- 
ber of  these  benevolent  petitioners  were  increased,  what  evils 
would  be  removed  from  the  earth,  what  errors  eradicated, 
what  abuses  spontaneously  reformed  ! 


WRATH    AND    PRAYER.  295 

Brethren,  you  will  bear  me  witness  that  I  have  not  said 
too  much.  Either  prayer  is  nothing  or  it  is  without  excep- 
tion all  that  I  have  said.  And  if,  casting  your  eyes  over  the 
world,  and  appealing  to  experience,  you  ask,  Where,  tlicn,  is 
this  power  ?  where  are  all  these  effects  ?  we  answer  by  ask- 
ing, Where  are  those  who  pray  ?  I  see  in  the  world  abun- 
dance of  people  who  dispute,  and  murmur,  and  accuse  ;  but 
where  are  those  who  pray  ?  And,  not  to  look  further,  where 
in  this  audience  are  those  who  pray  habitually  for  their  ene- 
mies ?  Where  are  those,  I  do  not  say  who  prescribe  to  them- 
selves a  rule  in  words,  and  add  to  their  acts  of  devotion  a  pe- 
tition of  forgiveness  to  their  enemies,  but  who,  moved  with 
tender  compassion,  tremble  for  the  fate  of  their  erring  breth- 
ren, and  affectionately  recommend  them  to  the  goodness  of 
the  Father  of  lights  ?  Where  are  those  whom  a  benevolent 
solicitude  prostrates  at  the  feet  of  the  King  of  the  universe,  en- 
treating him  to  save  those  also  who  know  him  not  ?  O,  Spirit 
of  prayer  and  love,  where  are  you  ?  where  shall  we  find  you  ? 
where  recognize  you  ?  Do  we  know  those  who  pray  for  their 
enemies  ?  Alas !  we  know  those  who  do  not  pray.  How, 
in  fact,  can  the  same  spring  send  forth  sweet  water  and  bit- 
ter ?  How  can  we  believe  that  those  who  curse  before  men 
can  bless  before  God  ?  Can  those  whose  mouth  is  ever  open 
to  the  expressions  of  wrath  find  in  the  secret  of  the  closet 
meek  words  in  which  to  recommend  to  God  those  whom  out 
of  the  closet  they  count  it  a  pleasure  to  condemn  '? 

Ah !  brethren,  the  divine  Intercessor  must  have  fully  es- 
tablished his  abode  in  the  soul  before  the  spirit  of  intercession 
can  dwell  there  !  Each  of  us  flatters  himself  with  feeling  the 
force  of  all  that  is  touching  in  the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ, 
who  before  his  appearance  in  the  flesh,  who  in  Gethsemane, 
upon  the  cross,  and  in  heaven,  interceded  and  continually  in- 
tercedes for  the  humanity  which  he  has  redeemed.  Yes, 
each  of  us  flatters  himself  with  feelinjr  it!     But  be  not  de- 


290  GOSPEL    STUDIES.      ^ 

ceived.  Jesus  Christ,  and  with  him  generous  compassion, 
indefatigable  love,  universal  charily,  are,  to  use  St.  Paul's 
expression, ybrmed  within  us  only  gradually  and  laboriously. 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour,  enters  all  at  once  into  the  soul,  and 
completely  fills  it ;  but  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  love,  the  genuine 
new  man,  grows  up  there  slowly  and  painfully.  We  may, 
indeed,  imagine  that  we  love  as  we  believe,  because,  in  fact, 
we  begin  to  love  in  beginning  to  believe ;  and  so  long  as  our 
love  is  not  subjected  to  difficult  trials,  we  judge  it  as  great  as 
our  faith.  But  how  soon  will  we  be  undeceived  if  we  are 
sincere^  and  willing  to  know  ourselves !  How  difficult  is  it 
for  the  old  leaven  to  lose  its  sourness  !  What  seeds  of  hatred, 
what  homicidal  germs  are  in  the  heart  which  has  received 
Jesus  Christ !  How  much  of  Cain  still  remains  in  this  pre- 
tended Abel !  And  what  avails  it  to  believe  much  if  we  love 
little,  or  to  believe  if  we  do  not  love  ?  And  truly,  what  have 
we  believed,  in  whom  have  we  believed,  if  we  do  not  love  ? 
In  Jesus  Christ,  you  say.  In  what  Jesus  Christ  ?  Not  cer- 
tainly in  him  of  Bethlehem,  or  Bethany,  or  Sychar,  or  Geth- 
semane,  or  Calvary  !  It  is  in  an  imaginary  Jesus  Christ,  who 
has  nothing  of  the  reality  but  the  name ;  a  Jesus  Christ  who 
has  neither  loved,  nor  prayed,  nor  died ;  a  name,  not  a  be- 
ing ;  a  phantom,  not  a  man  and  a  God.  In  our  eagerness  to 
be  saved  we  have  only  embraced  a  shadow.  O  God,  bestow 
upon  us  a  real  and  living  Christ !  He  alone  saves,  since  he 
alone  is  loved  and  teaches  to  love.  O  God,  unite  more  and 
more  closely,  not  our  spirit  to  a  name,  but  our  soul  to  a  soul ; 
to  the  soul  of  Jesus  Christ,  thy  Son,  and  the  Son  of  man,  our 
God  and  our  Brother !  In  this  intim>ate  and  living  union  may 
this  soul  gradually  become  our  soul,  and  may  we  learn  of 
him,  by  virtue  of  living  with  him,  to  love  as  he  loved,  bless 
as  he  blessed,  and  pray  as  he  prayed  !     Amen. 


TWO  COUNSELS  OF  WISDOM. 


TWO  DISCOURSES  ON  LUKE,  XII.  35. 


FIRST  DISCOURSE. 

COUNSEL  TO  THOSE  WHO  ARE  SETTING  OUT. 

"  Let  your  loins  be  girt  about,  and  your  lamps  burning." — Luke  xii.  35. 

The  words  of  our  Lord,  taken  in  their  first  obvious  meaning, 
bring  before  us  men  who  may  at  any  moment  receive  notice 
to  depart,  and  men  whom  the  darkness  may  at  any  moment 
overtake.  To  the  former  it  is  said,  Get  up,  and  gather 
under  your  girdle  the  long  folds  of  your  flowing  robes,  in 
order  that  when  the  moment  of  departure  comes  nothing 
may  render  it  too  difficult,  nothing  may  embarrass  or  retard 
your  step.  To  the  latter  it  is  said,  Instantly,  against  the 
hour  when  day  will  close,  kindle  a  lamp  whose  flame  will 
disperse  or  cheer  the  gloomy  darkness  of  the  night. 

Taken  in  their  spiritual  sense,  these  words  are  addressed 
to  all  men,  and  imply,  Take  the  necessary  measures,   that 
when  the  moment  comes  nothing  may  hinder  you  from  com- 
14* 


298  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

mencing  your  journey,  or  at  least  from  setting  out  resolutely 
and  willingly  in  whatever  path  God  may  choose  you  to  go, 
and  provide  yourselves  beforehand  with  a  consolation  which 
may  refresh  you  in  all  your  afflictions.  For  the  darkness 
spoken  of  in  the  text  is  not  that  t)f  ignorance,  error  or  doubt, 
but  that  of  anguish  and  tribulation,  and  Jesus  Christ  here 
opposes  the  lamp  of  joy  to  the  night  of  woe. 

This  exhortation  was.  peculiarly  appropriate  to  the  first 
disciples,  and  especially  to  the  Apostles.  For  whom  was  it 
more  requisite  than  for  them  to  have  their  loins  girt  and 
their  lamps  burning  ?  They  were  called  by  Providence  to 
lay  the  foundations  of  the  Christian  Church  amid  the  keenest 
opposition,  and  in  face  of  the  most  formidable  obstacles. 
They  were  sent  unarmed  on  the  conquest  of  the  world. 
They  were  going,  according  to  the  expression  of  Jesus 
Christ  himself,  like  sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves.  To  them 
the  future  was  dark,  and  the  only  thing  which  they  clearly 
discerned  across  the  darkness  was  crosses  planted  from  sta- 
tion to  station:  "You  shall  have  tribulation;"  such  was 
the  first  promise  which  their  Master  had  given  them.  The 
least  of  these  tribulations  was,  like  Abraham,  to  leave  their 
country  and  their  kindred ;  a  greater  was  to  remain  in  the 
bosom  of  a  country  and  a  family  which  hated  them  neces- 
sarily because  they  loved  Jesus  Christ.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
they  were  placed  under  orders,  and  at  the  disposal  of  their 
Master.  They  knew  that  the  servant  is  not  greater  than  his 
Lord,  that  the  world  would  do  to  them  what  it  had  done  to 
Jesus  Christ,  that  the  Shepherd  being  smitten  the  sheep 
would  be  scattered:  and  Peter  had  from  the  lips  of  Jesus 
heard  this  declaration,  applicable  to  all  his  colleagues, 
"Another  shall  gird  thee  and  carry  thee  whither  thou 
wouldest  not."  What  would  have  become  of  the  first 
Christians,  where  would  the  Christian  Church  now  be,  had 
Peter  and   his  companions  not  attended  in  earnest  to  the 


COUNSEL   TO   THOSE   WHO   ARE   SETTING   OUT.  299 

exhortation  of  our  Lord :  "  Let  your  loins  be  girt  about,  and 
your  lamps  burning." 

But  if  the  servant  is  not  greater  than  his  master,  neither 
is  one  servant  greater  than  another  servant.  All  have,  in 
general,  the  same  vocation.  Circumstances  may  differ ;  the 
obligation  is  the  same  for  all.  I  go  further.  There  is  no 
man,  whether  Christian  or  not,  who  has  not  some  grounds  to 
address  himself  in  these  terms :  "  Let  your  loins  be  girt 
about  and  your  lamps  burning."  I  address  them  to  you  all, 
dear  hearers,  and,  combining  the  features  of  the  natural  with 
those  of  the  Christian  life,  say  to  you  after  the  Sovereign 
Teacher,  and  on  his  part,  "Let  your  loins  be  girt  about,  and 
your  lamps  burning." 

"  Let  your  loins  be  girt  about ;"  in  other  words,  be  ready 
to  set  out.  Now,  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  which  expresses 
the  true  destiny  of  man,  and  the  true  relations  of  man  with 
God,  consists,  in  this  respect,  in  granting  nothing  to  necessity, 
but  every  thing  to  the  order  of  God  ;  so  that  each  of  our  in- 
voluntary privations  is  transformed  into  a  voluntary  sacrifice, 
and  we  at  last  find  we  have  given  what  apparently  we  had 
lost ;  given,  I  say,  freely,  and  from  a  principle  of  faith, 
obedience  and  love.  To  have  this  disposition,  is  what  the 
Gospel  calls  being  ready  to  set  out.  There  are  other  ways 
of  being  so,  but  none  having  the  character  of  liberty  and 
religion  of  which  we  have  just  spoken,  we  do  not  say  of  any 
of  them  that  it  realizes  the  idea  of  our  Saviour's  expression, 
"  Let  your  loins  be  girt  about."  Neither  thoughtless  gid- 
diness, nor  insensibility,  nor  pride,  can  be,  in  the  sense  of 
Christianity  or  of  absolute  truth,  the  girdle  of  our  loins. 

"  Let  your  loins  be  girt  about."  For  you  are  called  to 
set  out,  even  precipitately,  and  for  the  most  part  to  go  where 
you  would  not.  Some  are  required  suddenly  to  quit  the 
place  of  their  birth  and  their  kindred.  Who,  in  fact,  can 
promise  himself  to  die  where  he  was  born  ?     How  many 


300  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

have  terminated  under  a  foreign  sky  and  in  real  exile  a  life 
begun  in  the  country  of  their  fathers,  and  amid  all  the  objects 
of  their  affection  ?  Necessity,  duty,  honor,  command  these 
separations.  The  pain  which  they  give  to  tender  hearts  is 
admirably  expressed  by  Jeremiah  in  the  following  terms  : 
"  Weep  ye  not  for  the  dead,  neither  bemoan  him  ;  but  weep 
sore  for  him  that  goeth  away,  for  he  shall  return  no  more, 
nor  see  his  native  land."  What  do  I  say  ?  Were  this 
separation  voluntary,  and  the  accomplishment  of  it  our  most 
eager  desire,  the  moment  which  consummates  it  never  passes 
without  a  struggle  or  regret,  and  many  a  one  feels  astonished 
when  the  hour  is  come,  at  having  ever  been  able  to  wish  for 
it.  He  who  goes  away,  be  assured,  seldom  goes  joyful  ;  he 
requires  to  dream  of  return.  If  we  are  not  quitting  our 
country,  at  least  we  are  leaving  our  family,  we  are  going  to 
live  under  another  roof,  and  in  other  relations,  often  less  free 
and  less  pleasant.  However  short  way  we  go,  we  suffer  a 
kind  of  exile  ;  for  the  paternal  hearth  is  also  a  country,  to 
many  the  true,  the  only  native  country.  Such  is  the  law  of 
nature  and  the  will  of  God  himself:  "  A  man  shall  leave  his 
father  and  his  mother."  And  what  shall  I  say  of  those  who 
are  left  ?  They  do  not  depart,  you  say  ?  No ;  they  re- 
main, but  alone.  This  also  is  one  mode  of  departing.  They 
too  are  exiled,  exiled  in  their  solitude.  The  place  where 
they  remain  is  no  longer  the  same.  For  what  is  a  place  1 
It  is  nothing.  What  is  it  that  attaches  us  to  it  but  just  those 
whom  we  have  seen  and  possessed  there  ?  Loved  objects 
are  the  light  and  beauty  of  the  place  which  we  inhabit.  In 
their  absence  it  is  no  longer  the  same,  so  that  without  stirring 
we  have  changed  our  place  ;  without  making  one  step,  we 
remove  from  them  we  love.  We  too,  then,  fathers,  mothers, 
brothers,  friends  who  remain,  when  our  children,  or  our 
sisters,  or  our  friends  are  no  more  ;  v/e,  too,  have  set  out, 
and  may  apply  to  ourselves  these  words  of  Jesus  Christ : 
'  Let  your  loins  be  girt  aliout." 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    ARE    SETTING    OUT.  301 

But  setting  out  is  not  only  a  change  of  place,  it  is  a  change 
of  position.  It  is  to  quit  the  known  for  the  unknown,  to 
exchange  relations  for  other  relations  ;  from  the  present 
which  flies  away  to  pass  into  the  future.  To  understand  it 
thus,  life  is  full  of  these  departures,  the  whole  of  life  is  only 
a  departure.  The  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away. 
Many  of  these  departures  or  changes  may  appear  advanta- 
geous. The  poor  man  who  becomes  rich  thinks  he  has  made 
a  good  change,  having  substituted  fertile  plains  for  barren 
moors.  This  may  be  a  great  mistake.  Nothing  is  happy 
or  unhappy  in  itself;  the  heart  gives  every  thing  its  value 
and  significancy  ;  and  sinners  as  we  are,  prosperity  sits  ill 
upon  us,  security  is  the  greatest  of  our  dangers.  But  let  us 
pass  over  this,  and  admit  that  there  are  changes  or  departures 
which,  in  themselves,  may  be  looked  on  as  happy.  Let  us 
speak  only  of  those  which  are  galling  to  the  flesh,  and  say, 
while  continuing  to  compare  a  situation  to  a  place,  a  change 
of  whatever  kind  to  a  departure,  that  the  loss  of  fortune 
is  one  of  the  most  painful  departures,  and  that  nothing  more 
resembles  poverty  than  exile  ;  for  poverty  isolates.  In  fact, 
no  crowd  gathers  around  him  who  has  nothing  to  give,  and 
it  is  much  for  him  if  his  indigence  does  not  convert  the  world 
into  a  desert.  Now  who  can  flatter  himself  with  always 
enjoying  the  fortune  which  he  has  inherited  from  his  fathers, 
or  amassed  by  his  industry  ?  And  (let  this  be  well  con- 
sidered,) poverty  is  tolerable  to  a  certain  point  to  those  who 
have  never  been  rich,  obscurity  to  those  who  have  never 
been  conspicuous.  With  difficulty,  however,  do  we  resolve 
to  be  nothing  when  we  have  been  something  ;  and  how  much 
is  poverty,  which  all  the  world  hates,  detested  by  those  who 
have  not  been  always  poor  !  How  insupportable  do  they 
feel  it  to  be,  and  how  difficult  is  it,  at  least  without  having 
become  really  new  men,  to  rise,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  to 
the   full   height  of  such  a  situation  !     It  was,  then,  in  view 


302  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

of  such  a  departure  also,  that  Christ  Jesus  may  have  said, 
"  Let  your  loins  be  girt  about." 

There  is,  however,  a  more  painful  one.  The  death  of 
our  kindred  and  our  friends  is  more  difficult  to  bear.  Kin- 
dred and  friends  are  the  riches  of  our  heart,  riches  in  poverty 
making  the  most  intelligent  objects  of  envy  to  the  richest, 
from  whom  this  wealth  is  so  often  withheld  or  withdrawn. 
Well !  our  inferior  riches  are  more  faithful  to  us  than  the 
other.  More  than  one  man  has  preserved  his  fortune,  and 
even  seen  it  continue  increasing  till  the  day  of  his  death.  No 
one  has  so  preserved  all  those  whom  he  loved.  A  man  or  a 
woman  who  reaches  twenty  without  having  worn  mourning 
is  a  miracle.  The  thing  is  never  seen.  It  is  a  rare  happi- 
ness to  possess  till  forty,  I  do  not  say  both  father  and  mother, 
but  one  of  them.  And  what  shall  I  say  of  the  many  sudden 
blows  which  death  strikes  without  respect  for  what  we  call 
the  order  of  nature,  and  without  other  care  than  to  find  in 
one's  soul  the  place  that  is  most  sensitive,  and  will  yield  the 
keenest  pang  ?  If  there  is  in  society  or  in  the  church  a 
public-spirited  man,  apparently  necessary,  one  would  say 
that  our  esteem  and  our  gratitude  point  him  out,  recommend 
him  to  the  stroke  of  death.  Through  a  crowd  of  what  seem 
to  us  insignificant  beings,  whom  he  spares  from  disdain,  he 
proceeds  direct  to  this  man  and  lays  him  in  the  dust.  I 
know  very  well  that  in  all  this  death  obeys  God,  and  does 
not  strike  at  hazard ;  but  that  its  blows  are  unexpected,  that 
the  thought  of  Him  who  sends  it  and  directs  it  is,  in  this 
respect  as  in  every  other,  beyond  all  our  calculations  and 
foresight,  is  too  evident.  Life  is  a  field  of  battle,  where 
death  passes  over  the  front  ranks  to  reach  the  last,  spares  the 
common  soldier  to  throw  down  the  captain,  and  where,  from 
caprice  or  indifference,  he  favors  the  coward  above  the 
brave,  the  recruit  more  than  the  veteran.  This  appearance 
of  hazard,  this  variety  of  chances,  this  powerlessness  of  all 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    ARE    SETTING    OUT.  303 

guarantees,  this  sword  suspended  over  all  heads,  has  some- 
thing very  alarming  ;  and,  did  not  our  desires  make  us 
forget  our  fears,  what  life  should  we,  fathers,  husbands, 
wives,  children,  what  lives  should  we  lead  while  thinking 
that  no  one  instant  can  answer  for  the  next,  and  that  the 
morrow  of  the  day  which  has  seen  us  at  the  head  or  in  the 
bosom  of  a  prosperous  and  flourishing  family  may  see  us 
orphans,  widows,  without  posterity,  without  any  worldly 
prospect,  without  any  object  of  life  ?  Now,  in  all  these 
dead,  we  ourselves  die.  A  part  of  our  life,  and  of  our  heart, 
is  buried  in  each  of  these  tombs  ;  or,  if  you  will,  each  of 
those  deaths  transports  us  from  a  sweet  and  flowery  district 
into  a  more  inclement  region.  Life  is  a  voyage  from  the 
south  towards  the  north,  from  summer  into  winter,  and  the 
decline  of  life  finds  us  placed  upon  a  bare  and  ungrateful 
soil  which  scarcely  gives  the  means  of  life  to  our  poor  heart, 
and  whose  only  ornament  is  the  tender  and  sad  remem- 
brance of  a  happier  home.  Gradually,  or  rather  stroke  after 
stroke,  our  life  is  despoiled.  We  ought  to  foresee  this,  but 
we  do  not.  Each  loss  is  more  grievous,  each  sacrifice  more 
difficult  to  make,  and  the  obedience  we  yield  to  God  be- 
comes more  imperfect,  less  loyal.  With  how  much  reason, 
then,  might  the  Divine  Teacher  say  in  my  text,  "  Let  your 
loins  be  girt  about." 

One  thing  at  least  we  might  know,  that  in  our  turn  it 
would  be  necessary  to  die,  and  that  to  young  and  old  death 
seems  always  premature.  What  more  serious  than  the 
certainty  of  dying,  and  the  uncertainty  of  the  last  moment ! 
What  better  fitted  continually  to  fix  our  whole  attention  !  And 
it  is  true,  that  at  these  moments  when  the  thought  comes  upon 
us  our  very  bones  tremble.  For  of  all  events  death  is  the 
greatest,  of  all  separations  it  is  the  most  absolute,  of  all 
losses  it  is  the  most  painful,  since  it  includes  all  others ;  of 
all  departures,  in  fine,  it  is  the  most  formidable,  since,  apart 


804  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

from  the  light  of  Christian  reflection,  it  is  a  departure 
towards  a  country  of  darkness  and  terror.  But  these  mo- 
ments of  reflection  and  alarm  are  rare.  The  usual  course 
is  not  to  think  that  we  shall  die.  We  know  it,  however, 
and  we  every  day  see  it  light  on  some  one  near  us.  We 
know  that  we  must  die,  but  we  feel  that  we  are  alive.  We 
have  the  habit  of  life,  but  we  have  not  that  of  death.  Life, 
with  its  bustle,  its  various  impressions,  its  joys,  its  pains, 
ever  fills  our  whole  soul.  By  dint  of  forgetting  death  we 
cease  to  believe  it,  and  when  it  at  length  arrives  its  presence 
astonishes  us  like  the  arrival  of  the  least  expected  as  well  as 
least  wished  for  guest.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  it  must  be 
received.  We  must,  I  do  not  say  abandon  life  to  death, 
which  claims  it,  but  restore  it  faithfully  to  God,  who  asks  it 
back.  It  is  necessary  to  die,  and  die  well.  Is  this  an  easy 
matter?  Is  it  not,  on  the  contrary,  the  most  difficult  in  the 
world  ?  Do  not  those  who  have  found  strength  to  yield  to 
necessity  or  to  God  their  goods,  their  health,  their  country, 
nay,  the  life  of  their  friends,  do  not  they  usually  find  that  to 
yield  their  own  life,  however  ^despoiled,  poor,  unenviable 
it  may  appear,  is  a  very  different  thing  ?  Do  the  old  die 
nriore  willingly  than  the  young,  the  unhappy  more  willingly 
than  the  happy  ?  Is  not  life  dear  in  itself,  independently 
of  every  thing  else  ?  Does  not  every  condition,  every  for- 
tune, seem  preferable  to  death  ?  And  when  the  better  part 
of  us  has  gone  before  us  to  the  tomb,  do  we  not  eagerly 
cling  to  a  miserable  fragment,  even  while  conscious  how 
little  it  deserves  it  ? 

But  after  all,  brethren,  the  different  departures  of  which 
we  have  spoken,  and  even  this  last  departure,  which  is  called 
death,  are  only  the  consequences  (when  they  are  voluntary,) 
or  the  images  (when  the  will  does  not  interfere,)  of  another 
departure,  or  another  death  ;  with  reference  to  which,  above 
all,  Jesus  Christ  has  said,  "  Let  your  loins  be  girt  about." 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    ARE    SETTING    OUT.  305 

Let  us  not  distinguish,  brethren,  when  the  distinctions  are 
useless.  In  all  the  departures,  in  all  the  separations  which 
we  have  enumerated,  the  thing  always  implied  is  separation 
from  one's  self.  It  is  from  ourselves  that  we  are  separated  in 
exile,  in  the  loss  of  goods,  and  the  death  of  friends  ;  for  all 
that  we  love  becomes  a  part  of  ourselves  ;  much  more  is  it 
from  ourselves  that  we  are  separated  in  death,  since  none  of 
the  blessings  of  life  are  so  near  to  us,  or  can  be  so  dear,  as 
life  itself.  What !  to  be  torn  from  one's  self,  divided  in  one's 
self?  Will  our  nature  and  our  will,  to  which  this  division 
is  so  very  repugnant,  be  completely  disposed  to  it  after  we 
have  employed  all  our  time  in  rendering  it  difficult,  odious, 
and  impossible  ?  For  be  not  deceived.  So  long  as  we  do 
nothing  to  facilitate  the  departure  we  increase  the  difficulty ; 
the  knot  which  we  have  been  unwilling  to  loose  always  be- 
comes the  harder.  Between  dominion  and  bondage  there  is 
no  alternative.  The  world  and  the  flesh  take  possession  of  a 
heart  in  which  the  Spirit  is  not  established  and  fortified. 
How  do  you  expect,  after  having  passed  a  whole  life  in  forg- 
ing your  chains,  that  when  the  hour  of  trial  comes,  you  will 
at  once  get  rid  of  them  ?  As  well  might  we  say  that  a  man, 
in  passing  from  an  inferior  office  for  which  a  slight  degree  of 
knowledge  suffices,  to  an  eminent  charge  requiring  the  most 
extensive  requirements,  will  find  himself  fully  provided  by 
the  mere  effect  of  this  sudden  and  unexpected  promotion,  and 
that  science  will  spring  up  in  him  when  wanted,  like  the  hair 
upon  his  head.  When  did  the  art  of  arts,  the  great  art  of 
living,  become  the  only  one  that  can  be  known  without  learn- 
ing it  ?  You  who  shrug  up  your  shoulders  when  you  are 
told  of  prodigies,  can  you  suppose  a  greater  one,  one  more 
inconceivable  ?  You  whom  we  see  always  ready  to  oppose 
the  invisible  laws  of  nature  to  the  announcement  or  the  mere 
idea  of  a  miracle,  what,  pray,  do  you  make  of  nature  and 
her  laws?     Rome,  you  often  repeat,  was  not  built  in  a  day. 


306  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

Every  great  result  strikes  its  roots  deep  into  the  past ;  and 
yet  you  will  have  it  that  conversion,  the  new  birth  (for  noth- 
ing less  is  in  question,)  is  the  work  of  an  instant.  Ah  !  Rome 
would  be  far  more  easily  built  in  a  day  than  a  man  convert- 
ed in  a  day.  This  marvel  is  possible  to  God,  but  we  may 
safely  say  it  is  a  thousand,  ten  thousand  to  one,  that  he  will 
not  do  it.  By  what  incomprehensible  fascination,  by  what 
strange  enchantment  have  you  come  to  believe  in  the  exist- 
ence of  knowledge  without  previous  study,  a  masterpiece  of 
art  without  previous  practice,  and,  to  say  all  in  one  word, 
effects  without  causes  ?  Think  the  matter  over  with  your- 
selves, and  admit  that  the  means  must  correspond  to  the  ob- 
ject, the  beginning  to  the  end ;  and  that  to  be  in  a  condition 
to  separate  freely  from  one's  self,  in  the  different  cases  in  which 
separation  is  enjoined  us,  we  must  have  spent  our  life  in  se- 
parating ourselves,  I  mean,  before  any  external  circumstances 
has  made  it  necessary  for  us  to  do  so.  In  two  words,  which 
you  will  doubtless  comprehend,  to  be  able  to  separate  from 
ourselves,  we  must  be  separated  beforehand.  We  must  have 
outstripped  the  event ;  the  signal  for  departure  must  have 
found  us  already  departed. 

Does  not  this,  which  I  say  in  general  of  all  departures, 
apply  in  a  striking  manner  to  the  departure  which  is  called 
death  ?  Of  it,  at  least,  you  would  not  venture  to  say  that  it 
requires  no  preparation. 

Death  being  to  all  the  most  fearful  of  departures,  and  to 
each  the  strangest  and  most  novel  event,  we  must  especially 
have  death  in  view  in  repeating  those  words  of  the  Master, 
"Let  your  loins  be  girt  about." 

Jesus  Christ  is  not  the  only  person,  nor  the  first,  who  has 
said  so.  The  sages  of  the  world  have  also  had  the  same 
thought.  Of  the  science  of  life  and  that  of  death,  they  have 
made  only  one  single  science.  They  have  taught  that  life 
should  be   an  apprenticeship  of  death.     It  is  true  that  life 


COUNSEL   TO    THOSE    WHO    ARE    SETTING    OUT.  307 

by  itself,  all  the  partial  deaths  of  which  it  is  composed,  (for 
each  separation  is  a  death,)  seems  arranged  so  as  to  train  us 
to  die.  But  universal  experience  proves  that  this  is  not 
enough.  It  is  necessary  to  add  our  v^ill.  It  is  necessary  to 
train  ourselves  to  die.  Now,  this  is  not  a  trivial  science ; 
it  is  the  greatest  of  all ;  and  I  do  not  comprehend  how  he 
who  has  not  by  long  practice  learned  to  die  should  learn  it 
suddenly,  all  at  once,  at  the  moment  when  it  becomes  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  know  it.  All  men  are  not  allowed  to  die 
with  the  insensibility  of  the  brute.  Even  those  who  have 
lived  like  beasts  do  not  die  like  beasts.  Nature  assists  some 
in  doing  so,  but  not  all.  Who  would  envy  those  who  do  ? 
Does  the  whole  then  consist  in  resolving  from  any  motion 
whatever  to  perform  this  sad  step  with  a  good  grace  ?  He 
who  dies  thus  knows  not  what  it  is  to  die.  That  is  all.  To 
know  what  it  is  to  die,  and  be  willing  for  it,  is  the  point.  It 
is  not  to  be  merely  dragged  along,  but  to  follow ;  not  merely 
to  yield,  but  to  obey.  Now,  this  surpasses  the  power  of  nature 
or  temperament ;  and  here,  therefore,  I  say  once  more,  is  a 
departure  which  we  know  not  without  having  learned,  which 
we  learn  with  great  difficulty  and  slowly,  and  which  must 
be  constantly  in  our  mind  in  order  not  to  be  constantly  for- 
gotten. To  whom,  then,  in  regard  to  this  great  voyage  of 
death,  may  we  not  apply  our  Saviour's  words,  "  Let  your 
loins  be  girt  about?" 

The  just  and  clear  image  which  our  divine  Master  em- 
ploys may  be  stated  in  a  single  word  :  Be  detached.  What 
hinders  us  from  departing,  or  departing  willingly,  or  walking 
with  a  firm  and  rapid  step  when  the  signal  is  given,  is  the 
attachments  which,  like  the  foldings  and  refoldings  of  a 
flowing  robe,  embarrass  and  retard  us.  I  say  our  attach- 
ments, and  I  might  add,  our  cares ;  but  we  are  anxious  only 
in  proportion  as  we  are  attached.  What  inspires  no  interest 
cannot  be  the  object  of  any  care,  so  that  in  attachments  every 
thing  is  included. 


308  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

To  obey  the  signal  of  departure  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  it 
is  necessary,  then,  at  the  outset  to  be  detached. 

This,  brethren,  will  be  conceded  subject  to  a  distinction. 
Some  would  distinguish  between  the  attachnaents  whose 
objects  are  things,  and  those  whose  objects  are  persons.  ■  The 
former  are  given  up,  at  least  in  theory,  the  latter  are  reserv- 
ed ;  not,  perhaps,  from  thinking  that  the  latter  are  entitled 
to  dispute  the  call  of  God,  but  perhaps  from  its  being  sup- 
posed that  between  these  attachments  and  this  call  there  can 
be  no  conflict,  that  they  are  always  in  accordance,  and  that^ 
therefore,  there  is  no  use  in  anticipating  a  case  which  will 
never  occur.  The  supreme  sage,  Jesus  Christ,  has  judged 
otherwise.  In  the  parable  of  the  feast,  when  we  hear  one  of 
the  persons  invited  replying  to  the  invitation,  I  have  pur- 
chased a  field,  I  pray  thee  have  me  excused  ;  another,  I 
have  bought  a  pair  of  oxen,  and  must  go  to  prove  them,  T 
pray  thee  have  me  excused  ;  a  third,  who  has  just  married, 
thinks  he  has  no  need  of  excuse,  and  simply  answers,  I  have 
married  a  wife,  and  cannot  come.  We  have  here,  in  few 
words,  an  excellent  description  of  the  insolence  of  our  idola- 
tries. But  are  we  not  at  the  same  time  taught  that  conflict 
between  our  natural  affections  and  the  call  of  God  is  a  pos- 
sible event  ?  There  is  a  man  who  refuses — what  ?  To  go 
to  God.  Why  ?  Because  he  has  married.  This  surprises 
you,  and  you  doubt  if  the  parable  says  so.  It  does  say  so, 
brethren ;  it  shows  us  a  man  who  will  not  obey  the  call  of 
God  because  he  is  married.  To  a  second  call  he  will  answer, 
I  have  a  son,  and  so  cannot  go ;  to  a  third,  I  have  a  country, 
and  so  cannot  go.  This  is  always  without  one  word  of 
excuse,  without  the  shadow  of  a  scruple.  He  thinks  it  so 
great  a  matter  to  love  something  or  some  one,  he  thinks  there 
is  such  prodigious  merit  in  these  attachments,  of  which  some 
are  perhaps  common  to  man  with  the  beasts,  that  he  does  not 
suppose  that  there  can  be  any  thing  beyond  or  above  them. 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    ARE    SETTING    OUT.  309 

In  other  words,  because  he  has  a  family  there  is  no  heaven, 
because  he  has  a  wife  and  children  there  is  no  God. 

I  grant,  brethren,  that  few  persons,  since  there  has  been 
a  Gospel  in  the  world,  dare  to  speak  thus.  What  we  require 
to  remove  is  not  an  argument  which  can  scarcely  be  used, 
but  a  fact  which  is  unfortunately  too  common.  One  who 
would  blush  at  the  idea  of  preferring  perishable  riches  to  the 
Author  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift,  quietly  rears  the  altar 
of  his  natural  affections  above  the  altar  of  the  living  God. 
It  does  not  follow  that  these  affections  gain  any  thing  there- 
by. On  the  contrary,  they  lose  much  ;  and  I  wish  much 
time  would  allow  me  to  show  you  that  every  attachment 
which  does  not  become,  according  to  the  expression  of  St. 
Paul,  a  love  in  the  Spirit,  generates  and  falls  into  the  class 
of  instincts  which  man  shares  with  the  lower  animals.  No; 
the  man  of  whom  I  am  speaking  does  not  love  his  children 
and  his  wife  more  from  loving  them  exclusively,  but  he  loves 
Him  less  who  ought  to  be  loved  above  all.  He  is  less  faith- 
ful in  obeying  him,  less  prompt  in  answering  his  call.  He 
has  stolen  himself  from  God  and  from  duty,  in  order  to  give 
himself  to  the  world.  For  those  affections  which  the  Spirit 
of  God  has  not  sanctified,  that  love  which  has  not  become 
cliariUj,  is,  be  assured,  the  world ;  or,  if  a  stronger  love,  is 
nature.  It  is  in  effect  beautiful  as  the  verdure  of  the  earth 
and  the  azure  of  the  heavens,  but  God  will  destroy  both  the 
earth  and  the  heavens. 

It  is  not  because  we  love,  but  because  we  love  in  a 
worldly  carnal  manner,  because  in  this  love  we  secretly  seek 
the  satisfaction  of  our  selfish  nature  rather  than  the  good  of 
those  we  love.  We  say  to  God,  We  have  attachments,  and 
therefore  I  cannot  come.  Here,  no  doubt,  is  a  duty  to  per- 
form, a  testimony  to  give,  a  sacrifice  to  offer,  but  it  is  not 
compatible  with  our  love ;  and,  at  all  events,  the  heart  is 
elsewhere.      We  have  not  two  religions,  and   the  religion 


310  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

which  we  have  is  entirely  in  these  natural  attachments  ;  we 
have  not  two  Gods,  and  our  god  is  this  creation  that  God  has 
given  us.  Given,  did  we  say  ?  God  gives  nothing  abso- 
lutely but  himself;  all  the  rest  he  lends  or  trusts.  Nothing 
is  given  to  you  but  God  ;  you  yourselves  belong  only  to  God, 
and  yet,  most  cruel  of  follies  !  you  are  not  willing  either  to 
belong  to  him  or  have  him  belong  to  you. 

After  this,  brethren,  I  have  nothing  to  say  of  grosser  at- 
tachments. If  those  of  which  I  have  spoken  carry  us  away 
from  God,  hinder  us  from  following  his  call,  what  will  the 
case  be  with  avarice,  ambition,  and  voluptuousness  ?  Let 
us  not  honor  impossible  errors  by  repeating  them.  Let  us, 
however,  make  an  observation  on  a  species  of  attachment  so 
much  the  more  dangerous  that  we  do  not  suspect  it.  Breth- 
ren, 1  mean  habits. 

If  the  term  attachment  seems  too  good  to  be  applied  to 
habits,  let  us,  if  you  please,  call  them  ties.  Habits,  in  fact, 
are  ties,  chains.  We  contract  them  unawares,  often  without 
feeling  any  pleasure  in  them ;  but  we  cannot  break  them 
without  pain.  It  costs  us  something  to  cease  to  be  what  we 
have  always  been,  to  cease  doing  what  we  have  always  done. 
Life  itself,  in  its  least  attractive  form,  the  life  least  deserving 
of  the  name,  is  dear  to  us  from  the  mere  habit  of  living ;  and 
we  are  seen  carefully  hanging  upon  the  walls  of  our  dwell- 
ings frames  without  a  picture  in  them.  The  most  intimate  at- 
tachments, and  still  more,  the  most  incontestable  duties,  have 
often  given  way  before  the  power  of  habit.  To  have  the 
loins  girt  about,  then,  is  not  merely  to  distrust  our  attach- 
ments  ;  it  is  to  prevent  our  habits  from  striking  their  roots 
too  deep  within.  For  at  the  moment  of  any  of  those  depart- 
ures of  which  we  have  spoken,  one  of  these  habits  would 
suffice  to  keep  us,  as  it  were,  chained  to  the  place  which 
God  desires  us  to  quit.  Nothing,  therefore,  which  is  habitual 
should  you  regard  as  indifferent  or  trivial.     The  most  in- 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    ARE    SETTING    OUT.  311 

visible  ties  are  not  the  weakest,  and  at  all  events  their  num- 
ber renders  them  indestructible.  We  must  remember  that 
a  cable  is  composed  of  threads.  It  is  impossible  to  dispense 
with  habits ;  a  life  without  habits  is  a  life  without  a  rule. 
But  in  regard  to  these,  as  in  regard  to  every  thing  else,  it  is 
necessary  to  say  with  the  Apostle,  "  All  things  are  lawful 
unto  me,  but  I  will  not  be  brought  under  the  power  of  any." 
We  ought  every  moment  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  Lord, 
and  guard  against  fixing  our  place  here  as  if  we  were  to  be 
here  for  ever.  Bear  in  mind  that  we  are  really  and  of  ne- 
cessity strangers  and  pilgrims.  And  yet  let  us  not  do  any 
thing  slightly  or  negligently.  Let  us  labor  as  diligently  as 
if  we  and  our  labors  were  to  endure  always.  Though  we 
endure  not,  let  us  do  enduring  works.  Let  us  employ  all 
our  faculties  in  every  thing  we  have  to  do  ;  let  us  employ  to 
the  best  advantage  our  leisure,  our  resources,  the  life  which 
God  gives  us  ;  let  us  not  live  by  halves,  live  with  regret, 
but  let  us  be  always  impressed  with  the  conditions  of  our 
existence.  While  staying,  let  us  be  ready  to  depart ;  let 
us  be  continually  departing  in  spirit ;  'Met  us  have  our  loins 
girt  about." 

If  he  who  has  received  the  Gospel  thinks  that  this  in- 
junction does  not  apply  to  him,  seeing,  as  he  imagines,  that 
in  receiving  the  Gospel  he  bade  adieu  to  the  world,  he  is 
mistaken.  In  one  sense  the  separation  of  which  we  speak 
takes  place  once  for  all,  and  is  not  renewed ;  in  another 
sense  it  takes  place  at  different  periods  of  life,  and  with  more 
or  less  frequency.  Without  the  first  separation  the  others 
are  impossible,  but  on  the  other  hand  this  first  separation  is 
never  so  perfect  and  absolute  that  we  may  after  its  date 
cease  to  concern  ourselves  about  others ;  or,  in  other  terms, 
say  to  ourselves.  My  heart  being  previously  won,  works  will 
follow  of  themselves.  No,  no ;  the  first  impulse  must  be 
kept   up,  the  first  separation   be   always   anew  confirmed. 


312  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

We  must,  in  separating  ourselves,  incessantly  employ  the 
same  principles,  the  same  Qonvictions  which  produced  our 
first  separation. 

And  yet,  brethren,  the  wisdom  which  we  preach  would 
be  sad  folly  if  we  were  obliged  to  stop  here.  We  preach 
detachment,  but  man  lives  on  attachment.  He  must  love 
some  thing  or  other.  As  soon  as  he  has  ceased  to  love  he  is 
dead.  It  would  be  as  easy  to  remain  for  ever  suspended  in 
the  air  or  to  breathe  in  vacuoj  as  live  without  attachment. 
Should  you  bring  yourself  to  love  nothing,  would  you  be 
better?  Assuredly  you  would  be  worse,  and  God  would 
have  ill  served  the  interest  of  his  glory  in  making  you, 
if  I  may  thus  express  myself,  dead  before  your  death. 
To  detach  one's  self  is  nothing  if  an  attachment  is  not  at  the 
same  instant  formed.  Attachment  is  even  the  first  duty ; 
detachment  comes  after.  The  cell  in  which  the  butterfly  is 
imprisoned  does  not  burst  and  crumble  away  until  the  wings 
formed  on  the  insect  expand  and  open  its  dark  dwelling. 
We  begin  ta detach  ourselves  from  the  world  only  when  we 
have  learned  to  know  something  better.  Till  then,  we  are 
only  capable  of  that  disgust  and  ennui  which  do  not  consti- 
tute detachment.  Hence,  when  we  preached  to  you  de- 
tachment, when  we  said  to  you,  "  Let  your  loins  be  girt 
about,"  we  in  other  words  said  to  you,  "  Set  your  affections 
on  things  above."  And  what  are  those  things,  brethren  ? 
Are  they  things  merely  ?  Do  they  not  also  include  at  the 
outset  a  person,  and  one  most  worthy  of  your  love  ?  "  Set 
your  affections,"  says  the  Apostle,  "on  things  above,  where 
Christ  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God."  Why  are  these 
things  which  are  on  high  lovely  but  just  because  there  sits 
Jesus  Christ  who  loved  us,  and  God  who  gave  him  to  us  ? 
Our  religion  is  not  merely  a  religion  of  detachment,  for 
then  it  would  not  be  a  religion ;  it  is  a  religion  of  attach- 
ment or  of  love.     A  fit  object   has  been  proposed   to  our 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    ARE    SETTING    OUT.  313 

heart.  God,  as  manifested  to  us  in  the  order  of  nature,  was 
doubtless  very  lovely.  Yet  we  did  not  love  him,  and 
scarcely  understood  that  he  could  be  loved.  Such  was  the 
depth  of  our  fall  that  we  were  no  longer  capable  of  loving 
what  is  not  seen,  nor  of  seeing  what  is  invisible  to  the  eyes 
of  flesh.  Our  language  to  each  of  the  sages  who  came  to 
speak  to  us  of  God  was  like  that  of  Philip,  "  Show  us  the 
Father."  To  God  himself  we  said,  "  Make  us  gods  to  go 
before  as."  We  have  been  magnificently  heard  by  Him 
who  interprets  for  good  what  we  think  is  error.  He  has 
shown  us  the  Father ;  he  has  given  us  a  God  to  walk  before 
us.  We  have  known  upon  the  earth,  and  we  again  find  in 
heaven,  One  whom  we  can  love  without  measure,  without 
end,  and  without  fear ;  One  who  can  fill  our  whole  heart, 
and  who  in  filling  pacifies,  purifies,  and  ennobles  it;  a  God 
alike  lovely  and  venerable,  a  God  of  happiness  and  holiness, 
a  God  whom  we  cannot  know  and  contemplate  without  be- 
coming at  once  both  happier  and  better.  To  know  him,  to 
be  united  1o  him,  must  be  our  aim,  if  we  would  detach  our- 
selves more  and  more  from  the  world.  By  learning  to  love 
him  we  will  gird  up  our  loins,  and  be  ready  to  set  out  joy- 
fully, or  at  least  resolutely,  for  any  place,  any  position,  any 
fortune,  to  which  in  perfect  wisdom  he  may  be  pleased  to 
call  us. 


l^ 


TWO  COUNSELS  OF  WISDOM, 


TWO  DISCOURSES  ON  LUKE  XII.  35. 


SECOND  DISCOURSE. 

COUNSEL  TO  THOSE  WHO  WALK  IN  THE  NIGHT. 

'"  Let  your  loins  be  girt  about,  and  your  lamps  burning." — Luke  xii.  35. 

In  making  the  Second  Part  of  my  text  the  subject  of  a  sepa- 
rate discourse,  I  mean  not  to  deny  that  it  is  to  treat  the  same 
subject  twice ;  for,  in  the  second  part  of  the  verse,  the  duty 
which  Christ  enjoins  on  his  disciples  is  not  different  from  that 
in  the  first.  In  other  words,  two  things  are  not  required  to 
be  done  in  obeying  him ;  to  have  the  loins  girt  about  is  the 
same  thing  as  to  have  the  lamps  burning,  to  have  the  lamps 
burning  the  same  as  to  have  the  loins  girt  about.  The  thing 
always  required  is  to  be  ready  for  any  thing,  to  put  ourselves 
in  a  condition  to  face  all  difficulties,  and  provide  as  far  as  in 
us  lies,  that  none  of  them  surmount  or  overwhelm  us.  It 
would  seem,  then,  that  in  explaining  the  first  claim  we  have 
explained  the  second  ;  but,  brethren,  the  same  subject  may 
have  two  aspects,  or  may  be  looked  at  from  two  points  of 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    WALK    IN    THE    NIGHT.  315 

view.  The  idea  of  our  text  is  that  of  preparation.  The  ob- 
ject is  to  provide  for  the  future,  but  this  future  is  at  once  a 
duty  to  perform,  and  an  ill  to  endure,  a  duty  requiring 
strength,  an  ill  demanding  patience.  Where  is  the  principle 
of  this  strength  ?  We  have  already  seen.  Where  is  the 
source  of  this  patience  ?     This  it  now  remains  to  see. 

We  are  never  patient  under  an  evil  except  from  the  con- 
sideration of  a  good.  God  alone  can  enable  us  to  support, 
and,  what  is  better,  welcome  evil.  We  are  patient,  because 
beforehand  we  are  consoled  ;  so  that  to  say  to  any  one,  Act 
so  that  evil  supervening  you  may  be  patient,  is  to  say  to  him 
in  other  words.  Provide  consolation  ;  fortify  yourself  with 
joy ;  have  a  happiness  to  oppose  to  your  misery. 

Now,  such  is  the  meaning  of  our  Lord's  recommendation, 
"Let  your  lamps  be  burning."  For,  in  the  language  of 
Scripture,  afflictions  often  take  the  name  of  darkness,  light 
is  another  name  for  prosperity  :  "  He  has  led  me,"  says  Jere- 
miah, "  into  darkness  and  not  into  light,"  so  that  to  have  our 
lamp  burning  is  to  lay  up  a  provision  of  happiness  against 
the  days  of  adversity. 

In  a  burning  lamp  three  things  are  observable :  the  lamp 
itself,  the  oil,  and  the  flame.  The  lamp  is  the  soul,  with  all 
its  natural  faculties.  This  lamp  every  man  at  birth  receives 
from  the  hand  of  his  Creator,  some  a  larger  one  and  more 
ornate,  others  smaller  and  simpler,  but  all  alike  fitted  to  re- 
ceis^e  the  holy  oil  of  truth.  For  this  truth,  I  mean  the  ex- 
cellent tidings  of  the  Gospel,  is  the  oil  which  this  lamp  is 
destined  to  contain.  The  flame  is  the  life  which  the  Spirit 
of  God  communicates  to  this  truth,  which  flows  unto  us  from 
the  vessel  of  the  Gospel.  Then  the  lamp  is  in  its  perfection; 
for  it  gives  light  not  only  in  that  it  illuminates  our  under- 
standing, but  also,  as  indicated  by  our  text,  in  that  it  shines 
gladly  in  the  darkness  of  affliction,  and  even  in  the  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death.  This  flame,  which  we  are  enjoined  to 
keep  alive,  is  that  of  faith,  hope,  and  love. 


316  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

I  say,  brethren,  keep  alive,  for  Jesus  Christ  says  in  my 
text,  ''  Have,"  or  keep  "  your  lannps  burning."  But  this  very 
precept  implies  another,  "  Kindle  your  lamps;"  and  another 
still,  "  Have  oil  in  your  lamps."  Why  then  should  we  not 
turn  first  towards  those  who  have  not  kindled  them,  towards 
those  whose  lamps  are  still  empty,  I  mean  without  oil,  for, 
alas !  our  lamp  is  never  empty.  Have  oil  in  your  lamps, 
kindle  your  lamps,  let  us  say  to  them,  for  darkness  is  com- 
ing, darkness  is  near,  and  the  lamp  of  the  Christian  alone  can 
dissipate  it. 

The  darkness  is  near,  the  night  comes.  It  comes  at  every 
period  of  life.  It  comes  to  many  in  the  morning,  scarcely  . 
allowing  the  sun  as  he  rises  time  to  throw  into  space  a  pale 
and  gloomy  ray.  To  a  great  number,  life  is  less  day  than 
night,  pierced  here  and  there  merely  by  some  livid  flashes 
which  serve  only,  according  to  the  expression  of  the  poet,  to 
make  "darkness  visible."  For  all,  without  exception,  there 
are  in  life  moments  of  deepest  gloom,  days  of  anguish  and 
sorrow,  which  make  even  those  who  are  most  gently  dealt 
with  understand  the  grievous  exclamation  of  Job,  "Why  has 
light  been  given  to  the  miserable,  and  life  to  the  sick  at 
heart  ?"  From  the  very  sources  of  our  happiness  spring 
forth  bitter  sorrows.  Our  most  tender  attachments  arm  death 
with  some  of  his  sharpest  darts ;  for  although  St.  Paul  has 
said  with  truth  that  the  sting  of  death  is  sin,  it  is  true  that 
this  sting  multiplies  itself  and  makes  sharp  points  of  all  the 
flowers  with  which  we  deck  our  heads.  Every  crown  of 
flowers,  sooner  or  later,  becomes  a  crown  of  thorns.  I  wish 
not,  brethren,  to  give  you  here  a  tragical  parody  of  human 
life,  nor  conceal  from  you  the  visible  and  numerous  traces  of 
the  Creator's  benevolence.  But  the  happiest  of  mortals,  he 
who,  by  an  unexampled  privilege,  should  at  the  end  of  his 
career  have  to  recall  only  recollections  of  prosperity,  (1  mean 
of  happiness,)  would  be  a  man  who  had  never  loved.     Had 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    WALK    IN    THE    NIGHT.  317 

he  loved  he  would  have  suffered,  suffered  in  others.  Even 
the  general  aspect  of  human  life  would  necessarily  have  sub- 
jected him  to  the  most  painful  reflections.  At  all  events,  it 
would  be  necessary  for  him  to  die,  to  quit  this  abode  of  de- 
light, and  plunge  down  the  slope  of  death  into  a  darksome 
future.  In  the  foresight  of  this  inevitable  conclusion,  not 
once  only,  brethren,  but  daily  would  he  die ;  yes,  daily 
would  he  die  amid  joy ;  and  the  liveliest  feelings  of  delight 
which  could  thrill  his  heart  would  be  a  kind  of  wakening  to 
that  everlasting  sadness  which,  in  a  human  being,  may  sleep 
but  never  die. 

Such  is  the  immutable  condition  of  human  life.  Inces- 
sant warfare  is  ordained  for  man  here  below  ;  we  are  born 
to  trouble  as  the  sparks  fly  upwards.  On  whatever  destiny 
we  fix  our  eye,  we  see  it  covered  with  wounds  or  bruises. 
As  if  from  envy,  every  thing  reminds  us  of  our  inevitable 
decay.  I  admit  it  is  impossible  for  the  most  unhappy  not  to 
see  in  the  world  and  in  his  own  life,  proofs  of  paternal  be- 
nevolence, traces  of  a  first  design,  which  was  nothing  less 
than  the  happiness  of  all.  But  the  unhappiness  of  man's  con- 
dition is,  nevertheless,  an  oppressive  burden  for  the  heart 
and  mind.  This  uncertainty  of  the  next  moment,  those 
sorrows  entwined  with  all  our  joys,  death  always  ready  to 
avenge  or  sport  with  our  passing  felicities,  all  this  not  merely 
affects,  it  astonishes  us.  Unhappiness  seems  to  us  disorder, 
and  in  one  sense  we  are  right,  but  this  very  conviction  adds 
to  our  unhappiness.  We  know,  besides,  that  against  those 
numerous  and  obstinate  enemies  of  our  happiness,  there  is 
no  asylum,  that  the  general  law  admits  of  no  exception,  and 
that  if  there  is  some  kind  of  inequality  between  man  and 
man  during  life,  the  last  moment  makes  all  equal.  We  have 
then  even  now,  or  shall  soon  have,  need  to  be  consoled.  If 
1  may  so  speak,  we  shall  require  some  happiness  to  oppose 
to  the  inevitable  unhappiness.     On  the  approach  of  darkness 


318  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

mere  human  prudence  seems  to  cry,  To  your  lamps,  if  you 
have  any  ! 

We  may  try  to  console  ourselves  by  the  idea  of  our  in- 
nocence ;  we  may  say  to  ourselves  that  the  dreadful  blow 
we  have  just  received  is  not  caused  by  any  fault  of  ours,  or 
even  any  imprudence.  But  besides  that  this  salve  cannot 
be  applied  to  the  wounds  we  have  made  with  our  own  hands, 
our  conscience  interdicts  this  consolation.  Though  we  have 
not  deserved  such  or  such  a  suffering  we  have  deserved  to 
suffer,  and  our  most  insolent  murmurings  cannot  absolutely 
close  our  ears  against  the  voice  of  truth  which  cries,  '•  Why 
should  a  living  man  complain,  a  man  for  the  punishment  of 
his  sins  ?"  Now,  then,  if  you  can  forget  all  this,  deck  your- 
selves for  some  instants  in  an  imaginary  innocence.  If  the 
fault  is  not  on  your  part,  it  is  on  the  part  of  God.  God  is 
unjust  if  you  are  not  so,  and  as  there  cannot  be  injustice 
with  God,  your  saying  this  is  as  much  as  to  say  that  God 
exists  not.  Is  this  what  you  call  a  consolation  ?  Is  it  not, 
on  the  contrary,  gall  added  to  the  vinegar,  and  affliction  to 
the  afflicted  ? 

Against  the  ills  of  life  we  may  invoke  philosophy.  But 
here  philosophy  is  only  the  sounding  name  of  a  very  vulgar 
thing.  After  turning  it  in  a  thousand  shapes  all  it  can  say 
is,  that  the  world  is  so  made  that  our  complaints  will  not 
make  it  different,  that  it  is  far  better  to  bear  what  we  cannot 
change,  and  that  our  cries  only  increase  our  sore.  Here 
habit  knows  as  much  as  philosophy,  and  it  is  not  very  honor- 
able to  human  wisdom,  after  many  windings  of  a  less  or 
greater  length,  to  end  at  a  stupid  resignation.  All  true  con- 
solation is  joy  ;  here  there  is  not,  there  cannot  be  joy.  All 
true  consolation  should  elevate,  but  this  degrades  us.  Ought 
we  not,  in  the  name  of  our  dignity,  as  well  as  on  behalf  of 
our  happiness,  to  seek  other  consolations  ? 

We  may  say  to  ourselves  that  all  is  not  lost,  and  exhort 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    WALK    IN    THE    NIGHT.  319 

ourselves  to  draw  relief  from  what  still  remains  of  happi- 
ness. This  is  still  philosophy.  The  mind  may  thus  calcu- 
late, but  it  does  not.  Until  man,  in  another  school  than  that 
of  philosophy,  has  recognized  his  utter  unworthiness,  he  sets 
no  value  on  what  is  left  to  him,  but  thinks  only  of  what  he 
has  lost.  Each  of  us  has  only  to  consult  his  own  experience 
to  learn  how  far  in  this  direction  the  injustice,  ingratitude, 
and  presumption  of  man  can  go.  I  have  no  wish  to  blazon 
its  incredible  excesses.  I  confine  myself  to  say,  To  whom 
is  the  consolation  sufficient  ?  To  whom  is  it  any  consola- 
tion ?  All  consolation  is  joy  ;  here,  then,  where  is  the  joy  ? 
All  consolation  should  fill  up  the  vacuity  which  is  made  in 
the  life  and  in  the  heart ;  where  is  this  vacuity  so  filled  ? 
Go  and  say  to  the  man  of  the  world,  "  This  friendship  lost 
is  only  one  friendship  less ;  this  child  of  whom  death  has 
just  bereaved  you  is  not  your  only  child  ;  or,  if  the  only- 
one,  you  have  still  friends ;  or,  if  ail  is  gone,  you  have  still 
yourself;  think  not  of  what  is  gone,  but  of  what  remains, 
for  you  might  have  nothing,  others  have  nothing,  and  you 
might  fall  to  their  level."  You  are  aware,  brethren,  how  he 
will  answer.  Besides,  how  does  this  consolation  apply  to 
life  as  a  whole  ?  Life,  so  taken,  satisfies  nobody  ;  nobody, 
I  mean,  among  those  who  are  reduced  to  the  mere  light  of 
philosophy.  Will  you  go  and  say  to  them,  "  Come,  here  in 
place  of  the  lost  life  is  another  ?"  Where  is  this  life  in 
exchange  ?  Where  is  it  for  any  one  who  has  not  received 
the  lamp  of  hope  from  the  hand  of  God  his  Saviour  ? 

We  may,  moreover,  steel  ourselves  against  misfortune, 
we  may  brave  it.  But  this  is  not  consolation ;  for  sorrow, 
in  one  way  or  other,  ends  by  resuming  its  rights,  or  rather  it 
never  loses  them  for  an  instant.  The  resistance  of  pride  is 
only  one  sorrow  more  ;  besides,  every  one  is  not  capable  of 
it.  The  greater  part  of  men  cannot  barter  away  their  need 
of  consolation.     Nothing  supplies  its  place,  nothing  can  be 


320  GOSl'EL    STUDliJS. 

taken  in  exchange.  To  blunt  the  sting  of  grief,  time  is 
better  than  pride  ;  for  time  wears  out  every  tiling.  But  it 
wears  out  the  soul  as  well  as  all  the  rest.  The  power  of 
forgetting  is  only  a  weakness.  Life  thus  becomes  less  sor- 
rowful, but  it  also  becomes  less  serious,  less  noble.  And  al- 
though we  have  in  a  measure  forgotten  all  that  we  have 
suffered,  life  has  nevertheless  lost  its  charm.  The  illusion 
is  gone  for  ever ;  we  know  what  value  to  set  on  the  promises 
of  life,  and  whatever  events  do,  they  will  no  longer  make  us 
hope  for  an  impossible  felicity. 

Jesus  Christ,  the  divine  Wisdom,  has  anticipated  this 
conviction ;  and  on  his  part  we  say  to  you.  Mortals,  who 
know  what  life  is,  put  oil  in  your  lamps,  and  light  them. 
Let  your  lamps  become,  according  to  the  expression  which 
we  have  used,  lamps  of  faith,  hope,  and  love.  The  light  of 
life  is  not  happiness,  but  consolation  ;  not  what  we  see,  but 
what  we  do  not  see;  and,  to  tell  the  whole  truth,  not  what 
we  receive,  but  what  we  give.  According  to  the  full  mean- 
ing of  our  Lord's  words,  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive."  The  brightness  of  our  life  consists  in  believing, 
hoping,  loving.  In  believing  ;  that  is,  in  feeling  assured  of 
the  Father,  amid  the  manifestations  of  his  anger.  In  hoping  ; 
that  is,  in  laying  hold,  amid  the  ruins  which  gather  around 
us,  of  the  kingdom  which  cannot  be  moved.  In  loving  ;  that 
is,  in  substituting  for  the  care  for  our  own  happiness  a  care 
for  the  happiness  of  others,  or,  more  generally,  to  place  the 
centre  of  our  life  without  us  ;  for,  properly  speaking,  it  is 
only  in  this  that  life  consists. 

And  beware  of  abstracting  from  this  treble  flame  any 
one  of  its  rays  ;  above  all,  think  not  that  the  strongest  faith 
and  hope  would  suffice  for  happiness  without  love.  The 
Gospel,  which  has  said  that  faith  and  hope  are  nothing  with- 
out love,  nothing  either  for  happiness  or  for  perfection,  the 
Gospel  would  contradict  you  ;  your  own  conscience,  your 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    WALK    IN    THE    NIGHT.  321 

-own  experience  would  contradict  you.  What  have  been  the 
true  moments  of  happiness  in  your  life  ?  Are  they  not  those 
in  which  you  have  forgotten  yourselves  for  others  ?  On 
these  occasions  has  not  the  intimate  relation  between  happi- 
ness and  love  been  instantaneously  revealed  to  you  ?  What 
your  too  sure  recollections  thus  disclose  to  you,  does  not  your 
reason  also  disclose  ?  Love,  which  is  the  happiness  of  God 
himself,  must  also  be  the  supreme  felicity  of  the  being  whom 
God  has  made  in  his  own  image.  Every  other  happiness  is 
unworthy  of  this  being,  and  does  not  satisfy  him.  Selfish 
enjoyments  leave  a  void ;  love  alone  fills  and  nourishes. 
Vulgar  happiness  requires  to  receive,  and  has  never  received 
enough  ;  love  requires  to  give,  and  has  never  given  enough. 
Sacrifices  exhaust  the  one  and  maintain  the  other,  and  while 
the  first  would  gain  nothing  by  gaining  the  world,  the  second 
grows  rich  upon  its  very  losses.  Faith  and  hope  are  of  value 
only  because  they  conduct  to  love,  and  the  soul  would  dis- 
pense with  believing  and  hoping,  if  without  hoping  and  be- 
lieving it  were  possible  to  love.  Even  the  happiness  of  being 
loved  would  be  incomplete  without  the  happiness  of  loving ; 
and  if  the  love  of  God  is  infinitely  precious  to  man,  it  is,  be 
assured,  by  giving  place  to  it,  and  constraining  it,  so  to  speak, 
to  return  love  for  love.  The  crowning  grace  of  God,  the 
last  expression  of  his  love,  the  sum  of  the  Gospel,  the  end  of 
the  work  of  redemption  in  regard  to  us,  is  not  to  be  loved 
but  to  love.  It  is  when  we  love  that  all  is  accomplished  ;  it 
is  when  we  love  that  our  salvation  is  realized.  Love  is  the 
sovereign  good,  and  therefore  in  affliction  it  is  also  the  sover- 
eign consolation.  Still  more  than  faith,  still  more  than  hope, 
does  it  lend  to  the  light  of  our  lamp  its  liveliest  and  brightest 
beams.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  faith  and  love  open  the 
heart  to  Divine  love.  By  virtue  of  faith  and  hope  our  heart 
becomes  a  new  heart,  becomes  at  once  capable  of  loving 
with  a  pure  love  all  that  ought  to  be  loved,  and  of  not  suc- 
15* 


322  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

cumbing  under  the  ills  which  spring  from  our  condition  and 
from  love  itself.  Let  us  not  separate  that  which  is  insepa- 
rable, let  us  not  abstract  any  of  the  elements  of  consolation  ; 
let  us  repeat  that  in  this  world  as  it  has  become,  in  life  as  it 
is  now  constituted,  the  light  of  our  darkness,  the  happiness 
of  our  woe,  consists  in  a  faith  founded  on  God  himself,  in  a 
hope  which  looks  to  him,  in  a  love  which  ascends  to  him, 
that  it  may  thence  descend  again  on  mankind  and  take  them 
all  into  its  embrace. 

What  ought  to  delight  you,  dear  brethren,  in  the  con- 
solations, or  rather  in  the  joys  of  the  Gospel,  is,  that  they 
have  no  need  of  the  aid  either  of  pride  or  of  time,  and  that 
they  combine  in  the  soul  of  the  sufferer  both  strength  and 
mildness.  When  I  see  mildness  without  strength,  I  say  to 
myself.  The  man  is  nullified,  his  internal  springs  are  broken  ; 
these  are  not  the  proper  results  of  religion.  When  I  see 
strength  without  mildness,  I  say.  Here  is  no  consolation,  no 
joy,  for  joy  softens  ;  truth,  therefore,  is  not  here.  But  he 
who  has  embraced  Jesus  Christ  by  faith,  he  who  in  desert 
climes  has  again  found  a  Father,  he  will  in  grief  be  at  once 
mild  and  strong.  For  what  is  at  once  milder  and  stronger 
than  faith,  hope,  and  love  ?  In  the  hour  of  trial  expect  not 
from  him  either  lifeless  submission  or  haughty  rudeness. 
He  is  what  man  ought  to  be,  armed  with  courage  and 
adorned  with  humility  ;  erect  before  fortune,  on  his  knees 
before  God. 

With  the  oil  of  the  word,  with  the  flame  of  the  Spirit, 
make  the  lamp  of  your  soul  illuminate  your  darkness.  This 
I  address  to  you  who  yet  know  not  the  dispensation  of  God 
in  the  Gospel,  to  you  who  know  it  to  no  purpose,  because 
your  heart  is  not  yet  touched.  Equal  to  each  other  in  mis- 
fortune, subject  to  the  same  vicissitudes,  you  appear  in 
another  point  of  view  very  different,  since  there  is  between 
you  the  difference  between  ignorance  and  knowledge,  or  as 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    WALK    IN    THE    NIGHT.  323 

we  should  perhaps  say,  between  faith  and  unbelief.  Is  this 
difference  as  great  as  it  appears  ?  Neither  of  you  believes 
this,  if  faith  is  nothing  less  than  the  life  in  the  soul.  What, 
it  will  be  said,  is  the  lamp  without  the  oil  ?  But  what  is  the 
oil  without  the  flame  ?  Does  he  who  has  oil  without  flame 
see  better  than  he  who  as  yet  has  neither  oil  nor  flame  ?  And 
cannot  the  Supreme  Giver  give  at  once  both  oil  and  flame  ? 
I  thus  see  better  what  it  is  that  unites  you  than  what  it  is 
that  separates  you,  and  I  commend  you  both  to  the  Father 
of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh,  praying  that  in  pity  to  your  wants 
he  would  give  to  both  of  you  wl)at  is  necessary  ;  to  the  one 
the  knowledge  of  his  Gospel  and  Christian  convictions,  to  the 
other  that  life  of  the  Spirit  which  alone  converts  the  con- 
victions of  the  intellect  into  a  true  and  effectual  faith. 
There  will  you,  for  the  first  time,  find  light,  in  other  words, 
joy  and  happiness  ;  for  in  Jesus,  embraced  by  faith,  resides 
abundance  of  consolation,  fulness  of  happiness,  to  supply  the 
future  as  the  past.  To  say  the  whole  in  two  words,  you 
will  there  receive  the  assurance  of  being  loved  and  the 
power  of  loving.  What  more  is  necessary  ?  What  is  be- 
yond ?  What  more  can  be  desired,  or  what  more  will  be 
vainly  desired  either  by  him  who  is  loved  or  him  who  loves  ? 
What  void  can  remain  in  the  heart  or  life  where  there  is 
intimate  communion,  unchangeable  intercourse  with  the 
heavenly  Father  ?  What  darkness  will  not  disappear  before 
so  pure  and  bright  a  day  ?  What  doubt,  what  fear,  what 
regret,  what  desire,  can  tyrannize  over  a  heart  which  has  God 
in  its  favor,  and  which,  to  speak  more  properly,  possesses 
and  carries  him  within  ?  When  you  say  that  God  has  raised 
it  to  love,  do  you  not  say  every  thing  ?  Love  which  is 
stronger  than  death  is  stronger  than  the  whole  world. 

Light  this  lamp ;  light  it  whilst  it  is  day.  When  dark- 
ness after  the  day  is  set  penetrates  your  dwellings,  you  pro- 
cure an  artificial  day  by  lighting  a  fire  ;  but  you  take  care 


324  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

not  to  wait  till  the  darkness  is  complete,  for  then  it  would  be 
difficult  to  procure  what  you  need  in  order  to  dispel  it ;  a 
very  just  though  feeble  image  of  what  prudence  demands  of 
you  in  regard  to  another  light.  It  is  in  open  day,  at  noon, 
in  the  morning,  that  you  ought  to  light  this  lamp.  In  the 
full  sunshine  of  prosperity  must  you  provide  for  the  hours  of 
trial.  These  times  of  agitation  and  trouble  are  ill  suited  to 
so  great  a  work.  We  droop,  we  struggle,  we  sink  in  our 
sorrow.  Leisure  is  wanting ;  the  mind  is  no  longer  free. 
Scarcely  capable  of  providing  against  the  necessities  of  the 
time,  it  is  far  less  capable  of  forming  principles  and  giving  a 
new  basis  to  its  whole  life.  For,  brethren,  no  less  than  this 
is  required.  A  work  of  examination^  internal  observation, 
and  profound  meditation  must  be  undertaken  and  finished 
amid  the  most  poignant  emotions  ;  miracles  of  peace  must 
be  performed  amid  the  horrors  of  war.  Reflect  well  upon  it. 
How  are  you  to  learn  ail  at  once,  (and  when  the  whole  soul 
is  carried  in  another  direction,)  the  great  science  of  faith, 
hope,  and  charity  ?  How  renew  all  your  convictions,  all  your 
principles,  all  the  habits  of  your  mind,  all  the  tendencies  of 
your  soul,  in  a  word,  all  your  being,  when  imperious  grief 
claims  all  your  thoughts?  Were  we  assured  that  an  artist 
had  put  the  finishing  touch  to  an  exquisite  painting,  or  an 
astronomer  succeeded  in  making  observations  of  the  greatest 
nicety,  on  the  deck  of  a  vessel,  at  the  very  time  when  the 
raging  storm  had  thrown  down  its  masts  and  sprung  a  dan- 
gerous leak,  we  should  not  be  more  astonished.  No  doubt 
these  great  storms  of  life  may  have  blessed  results.  Anguish 
teaches  many  things  ;  without  it  what  should  we  know  ? 
But  without  speaking  of  all  the  cases  in  which  we  suffer 
uselessly  or  grow  worse  by  suffering,  let  us  merely  observe 
that  we  are  here  speaking  of  the  resources  of  the  soul 
against  sorrow,  of  the  consolation  which  it  requires  to  find 
within  itself  in  the  hour  of  trial.     Where  are  those  consola- 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    WALK    IN    THE    NIGHT.  325 

tions,  those  gladdening  beams,  for  him  who  whilst  it  was 
day  did  not  kindle  his  lamp  ?  How  many  unfortunate 
beings,  wandering  in  the  gloom  of  sorrow,  have  gradually 
approached  the  abyss,  I  mean  despair,  and  fallen  into  it ! 
How  many  others,  sunk  in  sleep  by  the  same  darkness,  (for 
the  darkness  causes  sleep,)  have  lost  all  courage,  have 
ceased  to  provide  for  themselves,  and  by  this  despairing 
negligence  have  rendered  their  misfortune  irreparable  or 
boundless  !  Of  how  many  others  has  not  sorrow  unmitigated 
soured  the  temper,  envenomed  the  feelings,  corrupted  the 
judgment ;  in  fine,  spoiled  the  whole  life,  not  only  for  them- 
selves, but  also  for  those  whose  happiness  was  confided  to 
them  !  Nothing  can  weaken,  every  thing,  on  the  contrary, 
enforces  the  exhortation  of  our  Lord,  "  Let  your  lamps  be 
burning,"  that  is.  Let  the  approaching  night  find  your  lamps 
burning. 

In  the  climate  in  which  we  live  the  twilight  precedes  and 
announces  night,  and  we  may,  during  this  interval,  prepare 
torches  or  lamps.  But  there  are  zones  in  which  night,  in- 
stead of  climbing  up  to  the  heaven  gradually,  seizes  on  it  at 
once,  and  envelopes  all  living  creatures  in  sudden  darkness. 
It  is  with  life  as  with  these  regions.  In  human  life  misfortune 
comes  even  more  suddenly  than  darkness  in  the  countries  of 
which  I  speak.  It  is  for  the  most  of  the  time  an  evening 
without  a  twilight.  The  splendor  of  day  falls  at  once  into 
the  dark  gloom  of  night.  We  suffer  without  having  fore- 
seen it,  without  having  been  prepared  for  it  by  a  decline  of 
happiness,  and  hence  naturally  suffer  more.  Without  any 
thing  to  break  the  fall,  we  tumble  to  the  bottom  all  bruised 
and  broken.  O  what  bitterness,  what  trouble,  what  internal 
tempest,  when  the  greatest  felicity  and  the  deepest  misfor- 
tune were  the  one  yesterday  and  the  other  to-day  !  What 
magic  words  will  communicate  at  once  mildness  and  strength 
to  him  whom  glory  enveloped  yesterday  and  shame  to-day, 


326  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

to  another  who  was  yesterday  the  most  envied  and  to-day  is 
the  most  wretched  of  fathers  ;  to  another  whom  all  hopes  yes- 
terday intoxicated,  and  against  whom  to-day  a  sudden  and 
incurable  infirmity  closes  all  the  avenues  to  future  fame  ? 
Will  he  learn  to-day  what  he  knew  not  yesterday  ?  Will  it 
be  possible  to  console  him  if  previously  unfurnished  with 
consolation  ? 

Therefore  we  have  reason  to  say,  Light  your  lamps. 
But  if  the  Spirit  of  God  himself  is  the  flame  of  our  lamps, 
does  it  belong  to  us  to  light  them  ?  Who  can  light  them  but 
God  only  ?  This  objection  is  refuted  by  its  own  conse- 
quences. For  it  would  extend  step  by  step  to  all  our  duties, 
and  there  being  no  longer  any  power  there  would  no  longer 
be  any  duty.  Let  us  not  distinguish  between  what  we  can 
and  what  we  cannot  do.  For  if  any  thing  is  above  our 
strength,  every  thing  is  above  our  strength  ;  and  if  any 
thing  is  within  our  reach,  all  things  are.  Let  us  say  frankly 
and  boldly  that  man  can  do  nothing,  and  that  he  can  do 
every  thing;  nothing  without  God  and  every  thing  with  God. 
All  the  morality  of  the  Gospel  rests  upon  these  two  founda- 
tions. Without  God  I  am  insufficient  for  the  least  of  my  du- 
ties, with  God  I  am  capable  of  all,  even  the  greatest,  even  of 
the  duty  which  includes  all  others ;  I  mean  the  duty  of  light- 
ing the  lamp.  And  this  is  the  reason  why  Jesus  Christ, 
who  might  have  said,  The  Spirit  of  God  will  light  your 
lamps,  has  gone  farther,  and  said,  "Light  your  lamps."  In 
speaking  in  this  way,  apparently  he  knew  that  we  could 
light  them.  We  can  before  as  after  believe  on  his  word, 
but  after  as  before  we  say  with  St.  Paul,  "  I  did  so,  yet  not 
I,  but  the  grace  of  God  that  was  with  me."  The  Christian 
soul  unites  inseparably  the  feeling  of  responsibility  with  the 
feeling  of  dependence. 

We  say  then,  without  scruple,  to  you  whose  lamps  are 
not  yet  burning.  Kindle  your  lamps ;  and  in  order  to  kindle 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    WALK    IN    THE    NIGHT.  327 

them  we  commend  you  to  the  Gospel,  interpreted  by  your 
conscience,  to  your  conscience  enlightened  by  the  Gospel. 
But  you  who  have  kindled  them,  have  you  nothing  to  do  ? 
Are  you  henceforth  sheltered  from  trial  ?  Have  you  not,  on 
the  contrary,  in  your  character  of  Christians,  particular  af- 
flictions to  foresee  ?  Or  perhaps  you  think  that  your  lamps, 
once  kindled,  will  burn  of  themselves,  and  never  possibly  be 
extinguished.  It  is  written,  however,  "  Quench  not  the  Spi- 
rit;" your  lamps  then  may  be  extinguished.  It  is  written, 
"Stir  up  the  gift  that  is  in  you ;"  it  is  thus  necessary  to 
keep  this  flame  constantly  alive.  It  is  necessary  inces- 
santly to  lay  up  a  store  of  happiness  for  the  days  of  misfor- 
tune, and  of  joy  for  the  hours  of  sadness.  It  is  necessary  to 
nourish  at  the  bottom  of  your  hearts  faith,  hope,  and  love. 

For  this,  under  the  Divine  blessing,  three  means  are  at 
your  disposal ;  namely,  contemplation,  prayer,  and  good 
works.  Might  I  not  add,  "  and  these  three  are  one  V  By 
contemplation,  I  understand  the  contemplation  of  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  not  an  effort  of  thought,  though  thought  is  in- 
separable from  contemplation.  No ;  it  is  a  simple,  filial, 
assiduous  look  to  Jesus  Christ;  I  say  not  to  his  doctrine,  but 
to  Jesus  Christ.  For  Jesus  Christ,  and  not  Christianity,  is 
our  object,  our  good,  our  life.  To  contemplate  Jesus  Christ, 
to  live  with  Jesus  Christ,  to  keep  society  with  Jesus  Christ, 
to  withdraw  to  Jesus  Christ ;  to  be  accompanied  by  his  me- 
mory and  encircled  by  his  presence,  to  look  to  him  as  the 
faithful  spouse  looks  to  her  husband,  to  refer  to  him  all  our 
thoughts  and  all  our  designs,  and  fill  with  him  our  mind  and 
our  soul ;  this  is  the  primary  means,  or  rather  the  whole 
means,  for  it  carries  with  it  all  the  rest. 

To  pray,  that  is,  to  expect  nothing  except  from  God ; 
and  to  expect  every  thing  of  God  ;  to  keep  our  soul  inces- 
santly open  before  him ;  to  lay  open  before  the  Father, 
whom  Jesus  Christ  has  restored  to  us,  our  wants,  our  fears, 


328  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

our  difficulties;  to  place  ourselves  continually  in  his  hands; 
to  accept,  by  anticipation,  whatever  it  may  please  him  to 
dispense ;  to  groan  before  him  under  a  sense  of  our  weak- 
ness ;  to  deposit  at  his  feet  the  burden  of  our  sins;  to  sigh  in 
his  presence  after  the  gift  of  a  new  heart;  to  place  ourselves 
under  the  rays  of  his  light,  under  the  dew  of  his  grace  ;  with 
all  the  humility  of  indigence  to  solicit  an  asylum  under  his 
roof,  a  place  at  his  hearth  ;  to  take  shelter  under  his  mercy, 
and  gain  warmth  upon  his  heart ;  such  is  the  grace  of  graces. 
No  wind,  no  storm  will  extinguish  the  lamp  of  him  who 
prays. 

In  fine,  to  act,  to  abound  in  works  of  righteousness  and 
charity,  without  intermission  to  fill  both  our  heart  and  our 
life  into  which  the  world  persists  in  wishing  to  penetrate, 
and  by  this  constant  and  happy  preoccupation  in  well  doing 
to  leave  no  place,  no  moment,  no  occasion  for  evil ;  to  unite 
thus  more  and  more  with  Jesus  Christ  by  resembling  him,  to 
breathe  the  air  of  heaven  beforehand,  and  have  a  foretaste 
of  the  pure  joys  of  eternity  ;  to  feel  as  with  the  hand  the  re- 
ality of  that  moral  order,  that  kingdom  of  God  invisible  to  so 
many  eyes ;  to  walk  in  some  measure  by  sight  in  the  dark- 
ness of  this  world ;  in  one  word,  to  obey  in  order  to  know, 
and  serve  in  order  to  love :  such  is  the  third  means  that  is 
proposed  to  you.  So  long  as  you  use  it,  fear  not  lest  the 
flame  of  your  lamp  become  feeble  or  extinct,  lest  consolation 
fail  you  in  the  hour  of  affliction.  "  By  this,"  says  St.  John, 
speaking  of  the  works  of  love,  "  by  this  you  shall  know  that 
you  are  of  the  truth,  and  shall  assure  your  hearts  before 
God." 

Shall  you  come  gradually  to  find  in  suffering  all  the 
savor  of  a  blessing  ?  Why  not  ?  Since  the  time  when  St. 
Paul  said  to  the  Colossians,  "  I  rejoice  in  my  sufl^erings," 
the  Lord's  hand  is  not  shortened.  If  every  Christian  regards 
the  diflTerent  trials  to  which  he   is  exposed  as  a  ground  of 


COtJNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    WALK    IN    THE    NIGHT.  329 

perfect  joy,  the  grace  of  God  may  raise  him  higher,  and  put 
him  in  a  state  to  feel  the  joy.  But  is  it  not  a  great  matter 
that  he  already  knows  what  they  are  worth,  and  that  with  a 
free  and  sincere  movement  he  blesses  God  for  them  ?  Wait 
firmly  for  this  grace,  you  who  have  carefully  maintained  the 
flame  of  your  lamps.  You  knew  long  ago  that  you  are  loved, 
but  the  hour  of  affliction  will  come  and  teach  you  how  much 
God  loves  you.  For  it  is  for  that  hour  that  God  has  reserved 
the  most  abundant  effusions  of  his  grace,  and  for  this  even 
has  he  prepared  that  hour.  Be  assured  there  is  nothing  he 
will  refuse  to  make  your  days  of  mourning  days  of  shining 
light.  Thousands  have  experienced  this  before  you,  and 
thousands  more  are  ready  to  tell  you  that  never  so  much  as 
in  hours  of  anguish  have  they  experienced  how  good  the 
Almighty  is.  It  is  the  wretched  who  are  grateful.  To  hear 
them  one  would  say  that  prosperity  caused  their  gratitude  to 
fall  asleep,  and  that  adversity  has  awakened  it.  There  is, 
in  fact,  a  spiritual  supernatural  joy  which  rests  at  the  bottom 
of  the  Christian  soul  in  tranquil  days,  and  which  affliction  stirs 
up  and  causes  to  boil  over,  and  which  reserves  every  thing  that 
it  has  most  impressive  and  thrilling  for  those  very  moments 
when  joy  seems  impossible.  This  joy  of  the  Spirit  does  not 
cause  the  sorrow  of  nature  to  disappear,  but  neither  does  this 
sorrow  extinguish  that  joy.  They  subsist  beside  each  other, 
the  sorrow  furnishing  occasion  and  nourishment  to  the  joy, 
the  joy  preventing  the  excess  of  sorrow. 

God  would  not  hesitate  to  work  wonders  in  order  to  turn 
your  sorrow  into  joy.  When  in  your  Gethsemane  (for  each 
in  his  turn  enters  this  garden  to  sweat  blood  like  the  Prince 
of  the  just,)  you  shall  in  your  agony  have  uttered  the  mourn- 
ful cry,  "Father,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me,"  the  Father 
might  send  angels  to  your  assistance  as  he  did  to  our  gener- 
ous representative.  But  Christ  needed  this  assistance,  and 
thanks  to  him   we  need  it  not.     The  angels  who  in  those 


330  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

dread  times  will  come  with  a  compassionate  hand  to  support 
our  declining  head,  and  wipe  the  sweat  from  our  b^'ow,  are 
invisible  angels,  who  will  not  then  come  for  the  first  time,  for 
they  have  long  been  there,  and  have  never  quitted  us.  These 
invisible  angels  are  faith,  hope,  and  love,  if  we  have  detained 
them  beside  us  by  contemplation,  prayer,  and  good  works ; 
or  rather  he  whom  we  have  detained  beside  us  is  God  him- 
self; God  whose  Spirit,  as  he  himself  has  said,  "  is  in  dis- 
tress in  all  our  distresses."  "  Though  we  walk  through  the 
valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  we  will  fear  no  evil,  for  God 
is  with  us,  his  rod  and  his  staff  comfort  us."  Yes,  in  this 
very  darkness,  the  blackest  of  all  darkness,  in  the  approaches 
of  death,  Thou  thyself,  O  Lord  !  wilt  come  to  comfort  thy 
poor  creatures ;  Thou  wilt  defend  our  couch  from  those 
visions  of  terror  which  ominous  appearances  and  the  remem- 
brance of  our  sins  gather  around  us.  Did  it  seem  good  to 
thy  wisdom  to  leave  us  alone,  and  without  immediate  conso^ 
iation,  to  perform  a  part  of  the  journey  in  the  darkness  of 
our  cavern,  it  would  be  on  its  issue  to  give  a  purer  and  more 
brilliant  light  to  the  sacred  day  of  redemption.  The  radiant 
face  of  our  Saviour  will  enlighten  this  darkness ;  we  shall 
not  be  long  in  discerning  his  mild  and  beneficent  counte- 
nance ;  and,  from  this  moment,  assured  and  enraptured,  we 
shall  feel  a  sublime  joy  rise  and  expand  in  our  soul  over  our 
fears,  our  regrets,  and  it  may  be  our  remorse.  Beside  him 
what  can  we  fear,  what  can  we  want  ?  Shall  we  not  be 
well  wherever  he  is  ?  Can  we  be  perfectly  satisfied  wher- 
ever he  is  not  ?  Was  not  the  hope  which  supplied  the  place 
of  happiness  here  below,  the  hope  of  possessing  him  ?  And 
if  it  was  sweet  in  this  place  of  exile  to  suffer  with  him,  what 
will  it  be  in  heaven  to  reign  with  him  ?  O  revelations, 
glor}^,  marvels  of  a  Christian  death,  how  great  you  are  and 
ravishing !  Will  it  ever  be  possible  for  us  to  pay  too 
dearly  for  them  ?     Is  it  to  pay  too  much  for  the  death  of 


COUNSEL    TO    THOSE    WHO    WALK    IN    THE    NIGHT.  331 

the  righteous  to  die  beforehand,  and  die  daily  to  ourselves, 
and  hide  our  life  with  Christ  in  the  bosom  of  God  ?  O  Lord, 
teach  us  this  death,  in  order  that  we  may  be  capable  of  the 
other !  O  Lord,  disrobe  us  of  ourselves,  and  clothe  us  with 
thyself!  Make  us  poor  in  order  that  we  may  be  rich! 
Be  our  only  treasure!  Be  our  only  light  in  the  days  of 
happiness,  so  that  thou  mayest  also  be  our  light  in  days  of 
mourning,  and  at  the  hour  of  final  departure  1 


SIMON  PETER. 


TWO  DISCOURSES  ON  JOHN  I.  42;  MATT.  XVI.  13-18. 


"  And  when  Jesus  beheld  him,  he  said,  Thou  art  Simon  the  son  of  Jona  : 
thou  shall  be  called  Cephas,  which  is,  by  interpretation,  A  stone." — 
John  i.  42. 

"  When  Jesus  came  into  the  coasts  of  Cesarea  Philippi,  he  asked  his 
disciples,  saying.  Whom  do  men  say  that  I  the  Son  of  man  am  1 
And  they  said,  Some  say  that  thou  art  John  the  Baptist ;  some 
Elias  ;  and  others,  Jeremias,  or  one  of  the  prophets.  He  saith  unto 
them,  But  whom  say  ye  that  I  am  ?  And  Simon  Peter  answered 
and  said.  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  And  Jesus 
answered  and  said  unto  him.  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Bar-jona  ;  for 
flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  which 
is  in  heaven.  And  I  say  also  unto  thee.  That  thou  art  Peter,  and 
upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church  ;  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall 
not  prevail  against  it." — Matthew  xvi.  13-18. 

FIRST  DISCOURSE. 

A  FiSHEKMAN  named  Andrew,  having  heard  of  Jesus,  rose  up 
and  followed  him.  Believing  that  in  him  he  had  found  the 
Messiah  or  Christ,  he  imparts  the  glad  tidings  to  Simon,  and 
takes  him  to  Jesus.  "  And  Jesus,"  says  the  Evangelist, 
"  having  looked  upon  him,  said.  Thou  art  Simon  son  of  Jonas  ; 
thou   wilt  be  called  Cephas,  which  is,  by  interpretation,  a 


SIMON    PETER.  dtJd 

Stone."  And  as  Jesus  is  not  a  man,  to  lie,  nor  to  utter  vain 
words,  the  expression,  "Thou  shall  be  called  a  stone," 
means,  thou  shalt  be  a  stone,  thou  shalt  be  a  rock.  And 
this  name  thereafter  attaches  to  Simon,  whose  original  name 
is  gradually  effaced,  or  seldom  appears  without  being  united 
to  his  new  name.  Familiarly,  ordinarily,  almost  without 
thinking  of  it,  the  disciples  of  Jesus  give  their  fellow  disciple 
the  name  of  stone  or  rock.  To  us,  too,  he  is  now  known,  so 
to  speak,  only  under  this  solemn  mystical  name.  God,  in  his 
eternal  decrees,  had  called  him  beforehand  by  his  name  as 
he  called  Cyrus.  Peter  he  was  before  he  was  born  to  mortal 
life,  Peter  he  is  in  the  Church  to  the  end  of  ages,  Peter  he 
shall  be  in  eternity. 

Were  it  not  of  itself  very  clear  that  Jesus  Christ  says 
nothing,  does  nothing,  without  a  serious  meaning,  we  might 
find  proof  in  another  place  that  it  was  of  set  purpose  and 
very  seriously  that  he  had  conferred  on  his  disciple  this  name, 
at  once  impressive  and  imposing.  He  confirms  it  on  a 
solemn  occasion.  The  people  are  at  once  moved  and  divided 
on  the  subject  of  the  man  of  Nazareth.  On  one  point  only 
are  they  agreed  :  that  certainly  he  is  a  great  personage,  so 
great  indeed  that  they  cannot  believe  he  belongs  to  the  pres- 
ent generation  (for  it  is  to  the  things  and  the  men  of  the  past 
that  our  regards  are  preferably  given)  ;  he  is  doubtless  one 
of  the  great  men  whom  God  has  taken  to  glory  ;  either  John 
the  Baptist,  who  has  just  perished,  or  Elias,  or  Jeremiah,  or 
some  one  of  the  prophets.  Jesus  asks  his  disciples,  "  Whom 
say  ye  that  I  am  ?"  Simon  Peter,  says  the  historian,  Simon 
the  rock,  (for  thus  only  was  he  now  called,)  takes  speech, 
and  answers,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living 
God."  Jesus  immediately  replied,  "  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon 
son  of  Jonas ;  for  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto 
thee,  but  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven.  And  I  say  unto 
thee  (just  as  if  he  had  said.  Thou  hast  named  me,  I  name 


334  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

thee,)  thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my 
Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 
Thus,  then,  at  the  beginning  and  towards  the  end  of  his 
ministry  Jesus  solemnly  imposed  the  name  of  Peter  on  the 
son  of  Jonas,  first  when  Simon  had  neither  done  nor  said  any 
thing  to  furnish  Jesus  Christ  with  any  occasion  for  it,  and  a 
second  time  on  the  utterance  of  a  sentence  or  profession  of 
faith  by  this  same  apostle. 

We  propose,  brethren,  to  lay  before  you  some  reflections 
on  what  Jesus  did  on  these  two  occasions  ;  we  wish  to  speak 
to  you  on  this  sovereign  substitution  of  a  new  name  to  that 
which  the  son  of  Jonas  had  received  at  his  birth.  But  it  is 
necessary  to  begin  with  explaining  the  new  name,  the 
eminently  significant  name  which  Jesus  Christ  bestows  on 
Simon. 

I  speak,  brethren,  of  the  new  name  only.  We  might  try 
to  explain  the  old  one.  You  are  probably  aware  that  even 
among  ourselves  there  is  not  a  name  without  a  meaning,  but 
with  regard  to  most  names  this  meaning  has  gradually  dis- 
appeared from  successive  changes  on  the  words.  It  was  not 
so  among  the  Hebrews.  Every  name  signified  something, 
because  they  did  not  wish,  did  not  admit  any  name  which 
did  not  awaken  some  idea.  The  wishes,  the  hopes,  the  af- 
fections, the  recollections,  of  a  family  were  openly  expressed 
in  the  name  which  a  child  received.  In  this  respect,  how- 
ever, it  would  not  be  worth  while  to  explain  the  name  of 
Simon,  and  that  of  Jonas  his  father.  But  more  than  once, 
perhaps,  in  choosing  the  name  of  his  child  the  father  was 
unconsciously  directed  by  Providence,  and  it  sometimes  hap- 
pened also  that  God  explicitly  pronounced  his  will  in  this 
respect.  Thus  the  name  of  John,  which  signifies  the  grace 
or  gift  of  the  Almighty,  was  brought  by  an  angel  to  Zacharias, 
father  of  the  forerunner ;  and  the  very  common  name  of 
Jesus,  or  Saviour,  was  by  the  express  will  of  God,  the  human 


SIMON    PETER. 


335 


name  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  are  cases  in  which  a  very- 
striking  relation  between  the  name  of  a  personage  and  his 
character  or  life,  scarcely  permits  us  to  doubt  that  God  did 
interfere  with  the  determination  of  the  family.  How  can 
we  but  admire  the  arrangement  by  which  he  to  whom  the 
Anointed  of  the  Lord  exclaimed  on  the  road  to  Damascus, 
"  Why  persecutest  thou  me  V  bore  during  the  first  period  of 
his  life  the  name  of  Saul  or  Saiil ;  in  other  words,  that  of  the 
unhappy  prince  who  also  persecuted  an  anointed  of  the 
Lord  in  the  person  of  David  1  As  to  the  individual  spoken 
of  in  our  text,  without  going  further,  we  simply  say  that 
Simon  signifies  listenings  and  Jonas,  dove.  What  lovely 
names,  as  applied  to  the  Gospel  !  how  exact  the  expression 
of  what  was  in  fact  the  character  of  the  Apostle,  as  amiable 
as  he  was  venerable  ;  and  how  easily  will  every  Christian 
understand  that  he  who  worthily  bears  the  name  of  listening 
and  dove  deserves  also  that  of  rock. 

But  what  we  have  to  do  with  here  is  the  new  name 
which  Simon  received.  Jesus  on  two  occasions  called  him 
Cephas,  that  is,  stone.  This  name  has  no  appearance  of  ob- 
scurity, and  yet  wo  would  not  be  sure  of  properly  seeking 
and  entering  fuUy  into  our  Saviour's  idea  if  we  were  con- 
fined to  the  text.  Jesus  Christ  becomes  his  own  interpreter, 
in  the  words  of  St.  Matthew,  which  we  place  beside  those  of 
St.  John.  We  might  have  believed  (and  who  knows  not  but 
the  son  of  Jonas  also  believed?)  that  the  name  of  Peter  was  a 
pre-announcement  of  the  immovable  firmness  which  charac- 
terized him  as  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  he  thought  so 
it  was  a  great  error,  and  the  subject  of  great  humiliation  ; 
and  a  moment  was  to  arrive  when  this  name  which  attaches 
to  his  person,  and  by  which  his  Master  and  his  companions 
continued  to  designate  him,  was  to  seem  to  him,  shall  I  say, 
a  cruel  mockery  ?  Without  speaking  of  his  unhappy  denial, 
and  of  his  flight  with  the  other  disciples,  was  it  truly  the 


330  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

firmness  of  conviction,  the  firmness  of  charity,  that  appeared 
in  those  acts  of  presumption,  those  extravagances,  which 
were  generous,  no  doubt,  but  in  which  the  flesh  and  the 
blood  performed  so  great  a  part  ?  It  was,  therefore,  under  a 
different  idea  that  Jesus  Christ  called  him  Peter  ;  and  this 
idea  he  has  himself  declared,  "  On  this  rock  I  will  build  my 
Church." 

There  is  no  reference,  then,  directly  at  least,  to  the  cha- 
racter of  St.  Peter,  but  to  his  calling  and  his  work.  The 
Church  of  the  Lord  was  to  be  built  upon  him.  Not  as  if  St. 
Peter  was  to  be  the  foundation  of  the  Church,  since  there  is 
only  one  Foundation,  one  Corner-stone,  namely,  Jesus  Christ. 
Peter  himself  was  to  be  laid  on  this  foundation,  from  which, 
like  all  the  other  stones  of  the  building,  he  derived  his 
strength  ;  but  he  was  after  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  name  and  on 
the  part  of  Jesus  Christ,  a  stone  on  which  the  Church  of  Je- 
sus Christ,  like  a  living  temple,  would  arise. 

The  Church,  in  a  certain  sense,  existed  before  this  was 
said.  As  soon  as  some  individuals  believed  in  Jesus  Christ 
and  followed  him,  there  was  a  Church  ;  and  this  little  con- 
gregation, still  wholly  passive,  seated  in  silence  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus,  carried  in  their  hands,  in  their  heart,  in  their  faith, 
the  destinies  of  the  world.  In  this  view,  perhaps,  our  Sa- 
viour said  to  this  handful  of  obscure  individuals,  "  Fear  not, 
little  flock  ;  for  it  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you 
the  kingdom."  However,  in  another  sense,  the  Church  did 
not  yet  exist.  The  active  spontaneous  Church,  representing 
and  continuing  Jesus  Christ,  the  Church,  the  fulness  of  Him 
who  filleth  all  in  all,  dates  only  from  the  death  of  Jesus 
Christ,  who  was  to  draw  all  men  unto  him  only  after  he 
should  be  lifted  up ;  or,  to  speak  still  more  precisely,  it 
dates  from  the  communication  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  was 
to  the  disciples  of  our  Lord  the  expected  and  wished  for  sig- 
nal.  The  history  of  Christianity  has  an  earlier  date;  the  his. 


SIMON    PETER.  337 

tory  of  the  Church  opens  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  On  that 
day,  with  the  ministry  of  the  Word,  begins  the  erection  of 
the  new  temple. 

What  then,  in  this  great  work,  is  the  work,  the  part,  the 
character  of  Simon  ?  Does  what  he  was,  and  what  he  did, 
justify  our  Saviour's  words,  "  Thou  art  Peter,  and  on  this 
rock  I  will  build  my  Church  ?" 

Let  us  agree  here,  brethren.  If  in  order  to  justify  these 
words  it  was  necessary  (as  many  have  supposed)  that  Peter 
should  have  been,  not  only  for  the  whole  body  of  the  faithful, 
but  for  his  companions  in  the  apostleship,  the  supreme  autho- 
rity in  matters  of  doctrine,  the  source  of  truth,  the  final  judge 
in  all  questions,  Peter  has  not  justified  the  imposing  title 
which  his  Master  gave  him.  The  whole  apostolic  Church, 
which  did  not  recognize  these  attributes,  must  then  have 
been  unbelieving ;  and  so  must  Peter  have  been,  since  he 
has  not  claimed  them.  Neither  did  the  apostles  submit  to 
Peter,  nor  did  Peter  ever  assert  his  right  to  it.  Parties,  each 
of  whom  gave  themselves  a  chief  among  the  apostles,  appear 
in  the  first  churches.  Peter,  without  wishing  it,  had  his  own 
party  in  the  church  of  Corinth  ;  where  several  gave  him  an 
exclusive  preference  over  Apollos  and  Paul.  This  party,  if 
Peter  had  in  fact  had  the  supreme  authority  with  which  he 
is  invested  in  spite  of  himself,  was  necessarily  the  good  par- 
ty, or  rather,  was  not  a  party,  wa^s  the  Orthodox  Church. 
Yet  St.  Paul  calls  it  a  parly,  and  blames  those  who  attach 
themselves  to  Cephas,  or  Apollos,  or  himself,  instead  of  at- 
taching themselves  simply  and  directly  to  Jesus  Christ.  Paul 
rebukes  St.  Peter  for  a  practice  closely  connected  with  doc- 
trine. Paul  counts  it  an  honor  to  have  so  acted,  and  Peter 
does  not  protest.  Nowhere  does  Peter  either  exercise  or  af- 
fect an  authority  superior  to  that  of  the  other  apostles ;  no- 
where is  he,  as  regards  them,  the  supreme  and  final  appeal, 
and  when  he  is  consulted  along  with  others,  who  like  him 
16 


338  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

are  called  pillars,  (because  they  had  been  with  the  Lord,) 
aye,  on  the  very  occasion  when,  if  ever,  it  would  seem  he 
ought  to  have  shown  himself  pope  in  the  full  meaning  of  the 
term,  his  only  distinction  is  that  he  speaks  first.  He  gives 
his  opinion,  does  not  impose  it.  He  is  not  even  the  president 
of  this  assembly,  nor  the  moderator  of  this  discussion.  He 
throws  into  it  no  other  weight  than  that  of  a  wisdom  full  of 
humility.  In  fact,  on  this  truly  singular  occasion,  nothing 
exhibits  in  him  the  pretensions  which  at  a  later  period,  and 
on  the  very  tomb  of  this  humble  apostle,  have  been  reared  up 
in  his  name.  What  remains  to  be  extracted  from  the  Gos- 
pel in  favor  of  these  same  pretensions  ?  Nothing;  unless  we 
choose  to  say  that  Peter  is  named  oftener  than  the  other 
apostles,  and  usually  first ;  that  he  more  frequently  is  spokes- 
man, sometimes  as  a  worthy  organ  of  his  fellow  disciples, 
but  sometimes  also,  in  his  haste,  organ  of  a  carnal  wisdom 
and  an  indiscreet  zeal ;  so  much  so,  that  in  the  very  chapter 
in  which  Jesus  Christ  confirms  his  name  of  Peter,  he  also,  a 
few  lines  further  on,  calls  him  Satan,  on  account  of  his  words. 
If  then  on  saying  to  Simon,  "  Thou  art  Peter,"  Jesus  Christ 
transformed  the  Christian  republic  into  a  monarchy,  if  Jesus 
raised  his  disciple  to  a  throne,  Jesus  spoke  in  vain ;  for 
Simon  never  was  what  on  this  supposition  he  ought  to  have 
been. 

Simon  was  a  rock  on  which  the  Church  of  Christ  was  to 
be  built.  Whatever  be  the  meaning  of  these  words,  they  do 
not  signify,  they  do  not  express  that  Peter  was  to  be  the 
apostle  of  apostles,  and  alone  invested  with  infallibility 
among  those  first  disciples  who  were  all  witnesses  like  hini 
of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  all  partakers  like  him  of 
the  gifts  and  graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  if^  without 
claiming  for  Peter  himself  what  the  history  of  the  apostolic 
Church  too  evidently  denies  him,  it  is  claimed  for  his  See,  for 
his  successors,  (supposing  him  to  have  had  a  See  and  suq- 


SIMON    PETER.  339 

cessors,)  if  the  simple  declaration,  "  Thou  art  Peter,  and  on 
this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church,"  has  this  interpretation 
given  to  it,  not  Peter  himself,  but,  him  excepted,  all  who 
have  been  bishops  of  Rome,  have  the  benefit  of  the  promise 
which  was  made  to  him  alone,  and  have  by  themselves  alone 
succeeded  to  the  authority  of  all  the  sees  and  of  all  the 
apostles ;  if  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ,  null  as  regards  Peter 
himself,  signify  all  this  in  behalf  of  those  who  have  suc- 
ceeded him  in  the  government  of  a  particular  community, 
then  right  is  founded  upon  fact  instead  of  fact  upon  right ; 
in  other  words,  the  texts  giving  no  authority  to  a  human 
establishment,  recourse  is  had  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
texts  after  the  establishment.  The  meaning  of  the  Divine 
expressions  is  sought  in  the  institution,  instead  of  the  institution 
being  judged  by  the  words.  By  this  monstrous  perversion,  all 
the  principles  of  interpretation,  the  basis  of  all  belief,  are 
shaken,  and  the  meaning  of  Scripture  is  left  to  arbitrary  de- 
cision. All  landmarks  are  removed,  and  the  field  of  truth  is 
thrown  open  to  the  fury  of  the  most  extravagant  doubts.  In 
one  word,  by  a  presumptuous  affirmation,  right  has  been 
given  beforehand  to  all  negations.  We  are  not  going  too 
far,  brethren.  Owing  to  affirmation  without  proof,  to  con- 
tradictions without  evidence,  the  simplest  minds  have  been 
rendered  suspicious,  the  firmest  mind  wavering  and  uncer- 
tain, and  skepticism  has  forced  its  way  both  into  the  Church 
and  society. 

Thus  then,  brethren,  the  promise  of  Jesus  Christ  to  Simon 
has  not,  cannot  have  the  extravagant  meaning  which  has 
been  given  to  it.  On  the  other  hand,  our  Lord's  words 
have  certainly  some  meaning  ;  shall  we  go  far  to  seek  it, 
brethren  ?     Does  it  not  offer  itself  to  the  first  glance  ? 

Though  the  Evangelist  and  the  historian  of  the  Acts  had 
left  St.  Peter  on  the  same  level  with  all  the  rest  of  the 
apostles,  there  would  be  no  ground  for  astonishment  at  the 


340  GOSPEL   STUDIES. 

prediction  of  our  Lord  with  regard  to  him.  The  edifice  of 
the  Church  would  not  have  rested  principally  upon  him,  but 
it  would  have  rested  on  him  in  some  degree,  and  we  would 
always  be  able,  after  eighteen  centuries,  to  regard  Simon  as 
the  rock  out  of  which  we  have  been  hewn.  Had  Jesus 
Christ,  calling  him  by  a  different  but  equally  true  name, 
said  to  him,  Thou  art  bread,  and  with  this  bread  I  will  feed 
my  Church,  or,  Thou  art  living  water,  and  with  this  water 
I  will  refresh  my  Church,  none  of  us  would  conclude  that 
Paul,  and  John,  and  James,  and  Apollos,  and  Timothy,  have 
nothing  to  claim  in  this  significant  appellation.  Has  not 
Jesus  Christ,  who  is  properly  the  bread  and  the  living  water, 
transformed  his  apostles  into  bread  and  living  water  ?  And 
how  can  we  deny  them  to  have  been  rocks,  and  parts  of  the 
rock  on  which  the  church  has  been  built  ?  Thus,  then, 
though  Simon  had  remained  in  the  shade  or  twilight  in  which 
other  apostles  remained,  the  expression  of  Jesus  Christ  in 
regard  to  him  would  find  its  justification  in  the  mere  fact 
of  the  apostleship  of  Simon,  and  the  general  certainty  we 
should  have  of  his  having  labored  with  all  the  others  for  the 
progress  of  the  Gospel  upon  the  earth.  It  would  still,  no 
doubt,  require  to  be  considered  why  he  alone  among  all  the 
apostles  should  have  his  name  changed  by  his  Master,  why 
he  alone  was  surnamed  Peter ;  but  in  whatever  way  we 
should  explain  this  specialty,  or  even  should  we  be  obliged  to 
give  up  the  attempt  to  explain  it,  the  name  assigned  him  by 
Jesus  Christ  should,  nevertheless,  appear  appropriate  and 
true,  and  the  declaration  of  the  Master  should  still  find  its 
full  confirmation  in  the  services  which  Simon,  concurrently 
with  others,  should  have  rendered  to  the  cause  of  the  Gospel. 
As  in  some  respects  St.  Peter  is  evidently  raised  above  the 
level,  we  are  accustomed,  brethren,  and  very  properly,  to 
attach  to  the  words  of  our  Lord  a  more  special  idea ;  but 
this  implies  not  that  on  inferior  ground,  I  mean  without  dis- 


SIMON    PETER.  941 

tinction,  the  activity  of  Peter  would  not  have  fulfilled  the 
promise.  Erase  in  idea  every  thing  that  distinguishes  him, 
every  thing  in  the  Gospel  history  that  assigns  to  him  a 
special  importance,  and  you  will  not  find,  I  venture  to  assure 
you,  that  the  words  of  the  Master  were  pronounced  in  vain. 
They  might  mean  more,  but  might  also  mean  less.  Only 
the  facts  have  proved  that  more  was  meant. 

But  verily  it  did  mean  more,  and  the  fulfilment  has  not 
merely  been  exact,  but  rich,  superabundant,  striking.  Not 
only  has  Peter  formed  part  of  the  living  rock  on  which  the 
Church  has  been  slowly  reared,  but  Peter  has  been  in  him- 
self alone  a  rock ;  Peter  has,  in  a  certain  sense,  been  the 
rock  on  which  our  Lord  has  built.     We  must  explain. 

In  every  work,  brethren,  if  we  ascend  to  the  principle, 
we  find  that  God  does  all,  and  shares  not  his  glory  with  any 
other.  But  if  we  lower  our  view  we  discover  helps.  Men 
are  workers  with  him  because  he  has  so  pleased.  To  him, 
no  doubt,  belong  their  works  as  well  as  themselves  whom  he 
has  created  and  fitted  to  do  the  work.  Nevertheless  they 
have  worked  with  him,  and  the  work  which  comes  from  him 
has  been  done  by  them.  Now  God,  when  consenting  to  let 
a  work  be  human,  subjects  it  to  all  human  conditions,  and 
particularly  to  this  one,  that  all  who  are  employed  under 
his  eye  have  not,  in  this  work,  a  part  either  exactly  equal, 
or  exactly  alike.  In  all  works  in  which  several  men  concur 
together,  even  were  all  equally  devoted,  there  is  a  kind  of 
drama  in  which  all  do  not  perform  the  same  part.  There 
always  are,  there  must  always  be,  men  who  take  the  initia- 
tive, men  made  for  beginning  undertakings,  paving  the 
road,  setting  the  example.  Their  character  is  a  character 
apart,  which,  with  an  equal  degree  of  devotedness  and  fidel- 
ity, some  have  received,  others  not.  When  any  important 
step  is  to  be  taken,  every  society,  however  free,  looks  out  for 
some  individual  better  qualified  than  others  to  perform   it ; 


342  ♦  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

and  in  works,  the  object  of  which  is  the  establishment  of  the 
heavenly  kingdom,  God  never  fails  to  raise  up  similar  indi- 
viduals. So  long  as  human  nature  is  what  it  is  there  will 
be  men  on  whom  the  initiative  devolves,  there  will  be  such 
men  in  the  domain  of  religion  as  every  where  else.  In  any 
of  the  great  movements  which  have  renewed  the  face  of  the 
world,  or  the  condition  of  the  human  intellect,  the  multitude 
have  never  dispensed  with  a  head.  They  look  out  for  him 
not  to  get  ideas,  but  because  they  have  them  ;  for,  if  they 
had  not,  they  would  not  look  for  him.  They  seek  him  that 
he  may  act  in  accordance  with  these  ideas,  in  order  to 
realize  them.  Rather  they  have  no  difficulty  in  finding 
him.  The  keenest,  the  strongest,  not  always  the  best  or 
the  most  enlightened,  advances  ;  sometimes  advances  quite 
alone  and  on  his  own  account,  but  the  standard  which  he 
raises  soon  gives  him  an  army.  Thus  Luther  advanced  at 
first  with  a  dubious  and  yet  uncertain  step.  He  carried 
within  him,  but  in  a  more  profound  and  distinct  form,  the  ob- 
cure  idea  of  a  multitude.  He  spoke  it  aloud,  and  the  multi- 
tude recognized  it,  recognized  themselves,  and  through  the 
perils  of  a  dangerous  war  followed  him  who,  so  to  speak,  by  a 
word  made  them  acquainted  with  themselves.  The  renewed 
Church  found  its  man  of  action  in  Luther,  as  the  infant 
Church  found  hers  in  St.  Peter.  St.  Peter,  with  miraculous 
gifts,  is  the  Luther  of  the  primitive  Church,  as  Luther,  con- 
fined to  more  ordinary  gifts,  is  the  St.  Peter  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. And  it  is  on  considering  what  this  Apostle  was  to  the 
rising  Church,  and  consequently  to  the  Church  of  all  times, 
that  we  feel  obliged  to  attach  a  special  and  very  personal 
meaning  to  our  Saviour's  declaration,  "  Thou  art  Peter." 

Already  in  this  Church  not  yet  constituted,  in  this 
Church  still  under  a  kind  of  tutelage,  which  Jesus  Christ 
had  gathered  around  his  person,  Peter  above  others  attracts 
and  fixes  our  regard.     His  Master  has  not  assigned  to  him 


SIMON    PETER.  343 

the  first  place ;  for  the  first  place  belongs  to  no  one,  and  we 
remember  that  an  indiscreet  question,  not  of  Peter  but  of  the 
mother  of  two  other  disciples,  called  forth  from  the  lips  of 
our  Lord  the  memorable  declaration,  "Let  him  who  would 
be  greatest  among  you  be  the  servant  of  all."  Still  less  has 
St.  Peter  been  invested  by  his  Master  with  any  species  of 
authority  over  his  colleagues.  Not  one  word  of  such  a 
meaning  proceeded  from  his  Master's  lips.  But  whose  is 
the  name  which  occurs  most  frequently  if  it  is  not  Peter's  ? 
Who  is  it  that  acts  as  organ  to  the  disciples  when  they  apply 
to  Jesus  Christ  but  this  same  Peter  ?  To  whom  does  our 
Lord  more  frequently  address  his  discourse  than  to  Peter  ? 
For  it  must  be  carefully  observed  that  this  attention,  which 
Peter  involuntarily  attracts  to  himself  by  his  mere  character, 
by  a  more  active  zeal,  a  more  conspicuous  affection,*  Jesus 
Christ  contributes  to  procure  for  him.  Jesus  Christ  has,  if 
not  greater  intimacy,  (we  know  the  contrary,)  at  least  more 
external  relations  with  him  than  with  the  rest  of  the  apostles. 
He  gives  him  more  of  his  attention,  he  makes  him  the  object 
of  special  solicitude  ;  he  prepares  him,  exercises  him,  tries 
his  fitness,  so  to  speak,  for  a  future  situation.  He  is  an 
instrument  which  he  tunes,  a  metal  which  he  refines,  a 
weapon  which  he  sharpens.  To  no  other  does  he  give  such 
particular  care,  and  one  would  say  that  Peter  being  formed 
beforehand  for  the  apostleship,  all  others  will  be  formed  of 
course.  Thus,  then,  the  character  of  Peter  carries  him 
always  like  a  valiant  soldier  in  the  van,  and  the  will  of  his 
Master  keeps  him  there.  It  keeps  him  there  so  evidently, 
that  uniformly  in  the  Gospel  his  name  begins  the  list  of  the 
disciples,  and  when  the  leading  ones  only  are  mentioned,  he 
stands  there  first  also.     So  strongly  is  this  distinction  or  pre- 

*  Emicat  ardens.     This  expression  of  an  ancient  poet  gives  the 
sum  of  Peter's  character. 


344  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

eminence  averred  and  recognized,  so  incontestable  is  it  as  a 
fact.  Was  it  then  without  an  end,  was  it  without  a  regard 
to  the  future,  that  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  better  understood, 
better  known  by  another  of  the  disciples,  enters  thus  into  the 
character  of  Simon,  and  allows  him  to  fill  so  great  a  space 
in  the  history  of  those  times  ? 

Thus  even  before  action,  the  man  of  action  was  revealed. 
Thus  we  know  beforehand  who  will  be  the  advance  guard 
when  the  army  begins  to  march.  And  in  fact  when  the 
signal  was  given,  when  amid  the  rushing  of  a  mighty  wind 
the  apostles,  met  to  celebrate  the  last  Jewish  Pentecost, 
heard  the  grand  hour  of  departure  sound,  there  was  no  inde- 
cision, no  division  among  them  as  to  the  great  captain  who 
was  to  march  at  their  head.  For  a  long  time  this  part 
devolved  on  Peter,  and  it  was  only  on  his  failure  that  another 
could  take  it  up.  When  the  disciples  were  still  waiting  for 
the  Comforter,  when  a  hundred  and  twenty  persons,  the  first 
fruits  of  the  thousands  and  thousands  still  contained  in  the 
Divine  hand,  wrestled  in  prayer  with  a  view  to  other  wrest- 
lings that  must  soon  arrive,  Peter,  pre-occupied  with  action 
and  government,  called  for  the  election  of  a  twelfth  apostle 
as  a  substitute  for  him  who,  according  to  the  fearful  expres- 
sion of  Scripture,  "  had  gone  to  his  place."  After  the  effu- 
sion of  the  Holy  Spirit,  manifested  all  at  once  by  the  gift  of 
tongues,  when  the  multitude  of  Jews  who  had  come  to  the 
festival,  and  whose  priests  had  not  yet  had  time  to  poison 
their  minds ;  when  this  multitude,  deeply  moved,  solicit  an 
explanation,  or  rather  a  direction,  it  is  Peter  who  answers, 
it  is  Peter  who  proclaims  the  advent  of  the  worship  in  spirit 
and  in  truth.  It  is  he  who  invites  these  first  fruits  from 
among  the  nations  to  be  baptized,  he  whose  powerful  words 
in  a  few  instants  creates  and  constitutes  a  Christian  Church 
of  three  thousand  souls  in  the  heart  of  the  city  which  has 
just  slain  Christ.     Some  days  elapse.     Peter,  sustained  by 


SIMON    PETER.  3  45 

that  faith,  a  single  grain  of  which  removes  mountains,  per- 
forms in  presence  of  the  people  a  miraculous  cure.  This 
furnishes  him  with  the  text  of  a  new  sermon  for  which  he  is 
put  in  irons,  but  which  calls  five  thousand  souls  more  to  the 
profession  of  the  new  faith.  Thus  Jesus  Christ,  by  the 
ministry  of  Peter,  has  already  a  whole  people  in  that  very 
city  where  so  short  a  time  ago  some  few  friends  were  se- 
cretly encouraged  by  the  remembrance  of  his  words.  The 
captivity  of  Peter  neither  annuls  nor  suspends  its  influence, 
and  we  see  one  during  his  absence  occupying  the  place 
which  he  leaves  vacant.  His  liberty  had  brought  him  be- 
fore the  multitude ;  his  captivity,  so  to  speak,  brings  him 
before  the  members  of  the  Jewish  priesthood.  To  them,  as 
to  the  multitude,  he  announces  the  merciful  counsel  of  the 
Father  of  men  ;  and  John,  the  companion  of  his  captivity, 
breaking  silence  for  the  first  time,  joins  him  in  that  declara- 
tion whose  calmness  and  simplicity  carry  dismay  into  the 
soul  of  the  priests,  and  condemn  them  to  inaction:  "Whether 
it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God  to  obey  you  rather  than  God, 
judge  ye."  Set  at  liberty,  he  resumes  his  place  amid  the 
apostles ;  and,  in  decisive  and  solemn  circumstances,  it  is 
still  he  whom  we  see  appear.  The  first  of  the  two  miracles 
of  terror  performed  under  the  Gospel  belongs  to  Peter.  At 
his  voice  Ananias  and  Sapphira  expiate  a  hypocritical  lie 
by  a  sudden  death.  Instruction  belongs  equally  to  all,  for 
all  as  well  as  he  have  received  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  action, 
the  initiative,  are  proper  to  him  ;  until  the  centres  having 
multiplied,  and  the  first  church  having  engendered  several 
churches,  each  gradually  becomes  what  the  first  was,  and 
receives  equally  the  impulse  of  some  man  of  action,  who 
will  be,  as  it  were,  the  Simon  Peter  of  this  new  community. 
However,  until  they  are  consolidated,  and  in  order  that  they 
may  be  so,  Peter  interposes  and  shows  himself  every  where. 
The  teaching  of  Philip  has  caused  a  new  harvest  to  spring 
16* 


346  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

up  in  Samaria.  St.  Peter,  who  did  not  sow  it,  goes  to  bind 
it  up  in  bundles.  This  Church  required  only  to  be  consti- 
tuted and  organized,  and  it  is  Peter  who  constitutes  and 
organizes  it.  This  he  does  every  where  ;  for  it  is  said, 
"  Peter  visited  all  the  churches."  Is  this  enough  ?  No, 
brethren  ;  another  task  is  committed  to  Peter.  It  is  the 
formal  introduction  of  the  Gentile  world  into  the  Church. 
Here,  again,  instruction  is  less  apparent  than  action.  Peter 
has  neither  discovered,  nor  conceived,  nor  reasoned,  on  the 
universaUty  of  the  gift  of  God ;  only  a  vision,  the  purport  of 
which  at  first  escapes  him,  prepares  him  for  unexpectedly 
meeting  with  a  new  truth,  or  a  new  development  of  the 
great  evangelical  truth.  It  is  not  so  much  he  that  teaches 
as  he  that  is  taught,  when  an  order  from  God  having  taken 
him  to  the  house  of  the  centurion  Cornelius,  he  there  finds 
his  vision  explained  ;  and  when,  seeing  the  Holy  Spirit  be- 
stowing his  gifts  and  stamping  his  seal  on  men  who  are 
neither  Hebrews  nor  descendants  of  Hebrews,  he  has  now 
only  to  proclaim  the  surprising  tidings  of  the  calling  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  exclaim  with  the  prophet,  "  Sing,  O  barren, 
thou  that  didst  not  bear !  .  .  .  Enlarge  the  place  of  thy  tent, 
and  let  them  stretch  forth  the  curtains  of  thine  habitations ! 
.  .  .  For  thou  shalt  break  forth  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the 
left;  and  thy  seed  shall  inherit  the  Gentiles."  Is.  liv. 
What  are  the  old  prejudices  of  Peter  against  such  a  mani- 
festation ?  Who  (as  he  himself  expresses  it,)  can  forbid  that 
those  who  have  received  the  Holy  Spirit  should  be  baptized 
with  water  ?  Will  this  frank  and  resolute  man  hesitate  ? 
He  hesitates  not.  He  throws  down  the  barrier  which  till 
this  hour  he  had  thought  immovable.  He  ceases  to  be  a 
Jew  at  the  same  time  that  these  neophytes  cease  to  be 
heathens.  He  pours  the  water  of  baptism  on  all  those  pro- 
fane heads,  and  under  the  roof  of  the  centurion  Cornelius 
the  greatest  promise  is  fulfilled,  and  a  boundless  prospect 
opens. 


SIMON    PETER.  347 

Till  now,  brethren,  your  eye  encountered  only  the  name 
and  traces  of  Peter.     You  continue  to  look   for  him.     He 
appears  no  more.     The  shadow  covers  his  person ;  silence 
shrouds  his  name.     His  work  is  not   ended.     He  will  still 
labor  much,  till  his  last   and   fruitful  labor   of  martyrdom  ; 
but  since  he  has  given  to  the  evangelization  of  the  world  an 
impulse  which  will  never  be  arrested,  his  part  is   no  longer 
the  same.     In  fact,  and  silently,  he  abdicates  the  primacy 
with  which  the   force  of  circumstances   and  the  will  of  his 
Master  had  invested  him.    Like  the  dictator  of  ancient  Rome, 
he  returns  to  his  plough  ;  and  if  henceforth  any  thing  dis- 
tinguishes him,  if  any  pre-eminence  can  be  claimed  for  him, 
1  think  it  is  that  of  humility.     Who  can  read,  who  has  ever 
read  the  letters  of  this  holy  apostle,  without  being  struck 
with  this  character  above  all  others  ?     Where  is  the  impetu- 
ous Simon  who  strikes  the  high  priest's  servant  ?     Where  is 
the  presumptuous  Simon    who  dares   to  say  to  his   Lord, 
"  Though  all  should  deny  thee,  yet  will   not  I   deny  thee  V 
Where   is  the  rash  Simon,  who,  opposing  the   fulfilment  of 
the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ,  exclaims  to  him,   "  God  forbid  ! 
that  will  not  happen  to  thee."    He  has  disappeared,  brethren, 
and  his  place  knows  him  no  more.     But  where   also  is  the 
Simon  who  denied  his  Master  and  his  Friend  ?     I   now  find 
only  a    man  emptied  of  himself,  and    wholly    full  of  his 
Saviour ;  effacing,  annihilating  himself,  not  only  before  Him, 
but  before  those  whom  he  himself  led   to  battle  ;  a  grave, 
meek,  pious,  modest  servant  of  God  and  man  ;  an  admirable 
model  of  humility  and  candor. 


SIMON  PETER. 


TWO  DISCOURSES  ON  JOHN  I.  42 ;  MATT.  XVI.  13-18. 


"And  when  Jesus  beheld  him,  he  said.  Thou  art  Simon  the  son  of 
Jona :  thou  shah  be  called  Cephas,  which  is,  by  interpretation,  A 
stone." — John  i.  42. 

•'  When  Jesus  came  into  the  coasts  of  Cesarea  Philippi,  he  asked  his 
disciples,  saying,  Whom  do  men  say  that  I  the  Son  of  man  am  1 
And  they  said.  Some  say  that  thou  art  John  the  Baptist ;  some, 
Elias  ;  and  others,  Jeremias,  or  one  of  the  prophets.  Ke  saith  unto 
them,  But  whom  say  ye  that  1  am  ?  And  Simon  Peter  answered 
and  said.  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God.  And 
Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him.  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Bar- 
jona  ;  for  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven.  And  I  say  also  unto  thee.  That  thou 
art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church  ;  and  the  gates 
of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." — Matthew  xvi.  13-18. 

SECOND  DISCOURSE. 

Brethren,  now  that  we  know  in  what  sense  Jesus  Christ 
gives  the  name  of  Peter  to  the  son  of  Jonas,  it  remains  to 
consider  what  instruction  we  ourselves  may  derive  from  this 
remarkable  fact.  Will  it  be  necessary  to  go  far  in  searching 
for  it  ?  Will  it  be  at  all  necessary  to  search  for  it  ?  Is  it 
nrobable  that  the  conduct  of  our  divine  Master,  in  so  grave 


,  SIMON    PETER.  349 

a  conjuncture  as  the  solemn  calling  of  one  of  his  apostles  to 
a  post  of  such  importance  to  the  destinies  of  the  Church, 
that  among  the  sayings  of  our  Saviour,  one  which  brings  out 
in  highest  relief  the  supreme  authority  with  which  he  was 
invested,  is  it  probable  that  all  this,  which  had  such  mighty 
consequences  on  the  future  prospects  of  the  world,  has  no 
instruction  for  us  ?  No ;  that  is  not  probable,  nor  even  pos- 
sible. These  things,  like  all  others,  have  been  written  for 
our  instruction,  that  we  may  believe,  and  believing,  have 
eternal  life.  Let  us,  then,  begin  anew  to  study  the  fact 
which  furnished  the  materials  of  the  former  Discourse  ;  now, 
however,  to  instruct  ourselves  in  the  ways  of  the  Lord,  and 
penetrate  as  far  as  we  can,  or  may  be  useful  to  us,  into  the 
secrets  of  his  Providence. 

The  first  thing  which  strikes  us  in  our  text  is,  that  Jesus 
Christ  gives  Simon  a  significant  and  prophetical  name  before 
Simon  has  done  any  thing  or  said  any  thing  which  ^an  give 
a  presage  of  what  he  is  afterwards  to  become.  This  we  have 
seen.  It  was  a  first  meeting,  and  nothing  gives  ground  to 
suppose  that  Jesus  Christ  had  gathered  the  least  information 
respecting  Simon.  He  fixes  on  this  new-comer  one  of  those 
penetrating  looks  which  doubtless  went  from  the  features  to 
the  inmost  soul,  and  without  questioning,  without  having 
made  him  speak,  he  says  to  him,  "  Thou  art  Simon,  son  of 
Jonas ;"  (thus  telling  him  his  first  name,  which  perhaps  he 
had  never  heard  pronounced,)  "  Thou  art  Simon,  son  of  Jo- 
nas ;  thou  shalt  be  called  Cephas,  which  is  by  interpretation, 
a  stone.''  If  you  suppose  that  he  spoke  thus  without  regard 
to  what  Simon  was ;  if  you  suppose  that  Jesus  said  to  him- 
self, I  mean  that  the  man  whom  they  are  going  to  bring  to 
me,  or  are  bringing  to  me  this  moment,  shall  be  the  rock, 
the  stone  on  which  my  Church  will  be  reared  ;  and  if  this 
man  has  actually  become  so,  how  shall  we  sufficiently  ad- 
mire the  sovereignty  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  all  instru- 


350  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

ments  are  good,  because  his  power  becomes  their  power,  and 
his  light  their  light !  How  can  we  sufficiently  admire  his 
having  been  able  to  make  the  first  comer,  by  the  mere  power 
of  his  word,  by  a  single  act  of  his  will,  the  indispensable 
promoter  of  so  difficult  a  work  !  If  it  may  be  said  that  the 
Gospel  is  a  second  Genesis,  it  may  also  be  said  that  the  call- 
ing of  the  son  of  Jonas  is  a  true  creation.  Jesus  Christ  is 
then  indeed  the  Son  and  the  image  of  Him  who  speaks  and 
it  is  done,  of  Him  who  calls  things  which  are  not  as  if  they 
were.  You  are  perfectly  entitled  to  abide  by  this  first  sup- 
position, which  certainly  is  to  the  glory  of  Jesus  Christ,  but 
I  do  not  dwell  upon  it.  Jesus  Christ,  before  saying  to  Simon 
"  Thou  art  a  stone,"  fixed  his  eye  upon  him.  This  could 
not  be  in  vain.  With  a  single  look  he  penetrated  Simon ; 
from  this  moment  Simon  was  known  to  him.  Brethren,  shall 
we  admire  this  Divine  penetration  less  than  we  just  now  ad- 
mired tljis  Divine  power  ?  Is  it  less  strange,  is  it  less  won- 
derful, to  say  of  a  man  on  first  sight  what  he  is  and  what  he 
will  be,  and  to  change  his  name  on  this  foresight,  than  to 
prepare  him,  whatever  he  may  be  in  himself,  to  become  one 
day  what  it  is  meant  he  should  be  ?  You  may  choose.  For 
ourselves,  we  are  in  both  cases  equally  struck  with  the  au- 
thority, the -majesty  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  both  cases  we  recog- 
nize in  Jesus  Christ  him  to  whom  all  power  has  been  given 
in  heaven  and  on  earth,  him  to  whom  the  Spirit  has  been 
given  without  measure.  But  we  believe  he  knew  St.  Peter, 
and  chose  him  for  what  he  was.  We  go  further  :  we  believe 
that  the  conduct  of  Jesus  Christ  on  this  occasion  exhibits  the 
ordinary  conduct  of  God. 

God,  who  of  stones  could  raise  up  children  to  Abraham, 
can  manifest  his  sovereignty  by  producing  an  effect  from  a 
cause  apparently  contrary  to  it.  I  say,  brethren,  apparently 
contrary,  for  in  reality  how  do  we  know  that  it  is  really  so  ? 
If  you  except  miracles,  properly  so  called,  (which,  rightly 


SIMON    PETER.  351 

understood,  are  manifestations  of  creative  power,  partial  cre- 
ations subsequent  to  the  general  creation,)  what  is  the  work 
of  God  in  which  we  can  say  with  certainty  that  God  inter- 
poses as  Creator  ?  When  he  employs  an  object  according 
to  the  perfect  knowledge  which  he  has  of  it,  he  draws  from 
it  effects  which  we,  who  have  infinitely  less  acquaintance 
with  the  object,  cannot  expiscate.  This  power  is  no  less  di- 
vine than  the  other ;  and  we  must  never  forget  that  he  him- 
self at  first  made  the  beings  whom  he  chooses,  and  prepared 
the  instruments  which  he  employs.  We  ought  not,  then,  to 
be  afraid  of  lowering  the  idea  of  God  by  supposing  that  in 
the  accomplishment  of  his  designs  he  has  regard  to  the  na- 
ture of  objects,  though  he  probably  takes  pleasure  in  con- 
founding our  thoughts  by  seeking  his  means  where  we  should 
only  have  found  obstacles.  No  more  ought  we  to  fear  lest 
this  supposition  should  bring  us  into  contradiction  with  Scrip- 
ture. For  if  Scripture  tells  us  that  God  has  chosen  the  weak 
things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  mighty,  and  things  which 
are  not  to  bring  to  nought  things  which  are,  (1  Cor.  i.  27, 
28,)  it  is  necessary  to  understand  that  the  weak  things  of 
this  world  are  not  things  absolutely  weak,  and  that  the  things 
of  which  it  is  said  that  they  are  not,  on  the  contrary,  are  or 
exist  in  the  strongest  sense  of  the  term.  If,  as  Jesus  Christ 
teaches  us,  what  is  great  in  the  sight  of  man  is  abomination 
in  the  sight  of  God,  we  are  entitled  to  reverse  the  proposi- 
tion, and  say  that  what  is  little  in  the  eyes  of  man  is  full  of 
glory  in  the  eyes  of  God ;  that  what  in  the  eyes  of  man  is 
nothing  or  is  not,  is  real  and  even  important  in  the  view  of 
God,  the  only  infallible  valuator.  Under  the  term  nothing, 
as  opposed  to  being,  or  littleness,  opposed  to  greatness,  what 
are  we  often  to  understand  but  spirit,  which  is  invisible,  op- 
posed to  matter,  which  is  seen  ?  We  must  not,  then,  be 
hasty  in  our  judgment.  We  must  not  confound  the  wonder- 
ful and  the  miraculous,  nor  make  the  latter  the  law  of  Di- 


352  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

vine  government.  The  works  of  God  are  too  perfect,  the 
knowledge  which  he  has  of  them  too  intimate,  the  power  with 
which  he  determines  their  relations  too  sovereign,  that  it 
should  be  habitually  necessary  for  him  (unless  for  the  purpose 
of  confounding  our  unbelief  or  encouraging  our  faith)  to  recur 
to  absolute  creation,  which  is,  as  we  have  said,  the  charac- 
teristic of  miracle.  Generally  speaking,  what  he  has  done 
is  sufficient  for  what  he  wishes  to  do ;  and  to  this  all  the 
spheres  of  creation  bear  testimony.  Newton  predicted  that 
after  the  lapse  of  an  immense  period  it  would  be  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  Creating  Hand  to  interpose  anew.  What 
a  Christian  philosopher  judged  indispensable,  an  infidel  phi- 
losopher has  proved  superfluous.  La  Place  has  proved  that 
the  Supreme  Arranger  of  the  universe  has  provided  for  all, 
and  that  an  element  overlooked  by  Newton  guarantees  the 
peace  of  the  firmament  to  the  last  limits  of  the  existence  of 
worlds.  Certainly  when  the  Almighty  calls  forth  Moses 
from  the  recesses  of  the  desert  and  the  midst  of  his  flocks  to 
found  an  independent  nation,  and  prepare  from  afar  the  great 
gathering  of  nations  reserved  for  the  Son  of  David,  he  makes 
use  of  weakness  to  confound  strength,  and  brings  what  is  out 
of  what  was  not.  Nevertheless  when  Moses,  astonished  at  his 
mission,  alleges  his  slow  tongue  and  embarrassed  utterance, 
what  does  the  Almighty,  while  rebuking  the  unbelief  of  Mo- 
ses, and  reminding  him  that  he,  the  Almighty,  made  the 
mouth  of  mail,  makes  the  deaf  and  the  dumb,  the  seeing  and 
the  blind,  what  does  he  ?  He  says  to  Moses,  "  Is  not  Aaron, 
the  Levite,  thy  brother  ?  I  know  that  he  can  speak  well. 
And  thou  shalt  speak  unto  him,  and  put  words  in  his  mouth, 
and  1  will  be  with  thy  mouth  and  his  mouth.''  Thus  the 
Almighty,  who  might  have  given  Moses  an  eloquent  tongue, 
leaves  him  as  he  is ;  but  gives  him  for  companion  and  organ 
a  man  naturally  eloquent. 

St.   Peter  was  chosen  in  the  same  spirit  as  Aaron  was. 


SIMON    PKTER.  353 

We  have  seen  in  the  former  discourse  a  part  at  least  of  what 
pointed  out  the  son  of  Jonas  to  the  choice  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  to  the  special  mission  which  was  to  be  his  lot.  We  will 
not  go  back  to  this.  But  what  it  now  becomes  necessary  to 
say  is,  that  when  God  has  begun  he  continues  ;  that  nothing 
comes  incomplete  from  his  mighty  hand  ;  that  when  he  has 
chosen  an  instrument  he  perfects  it ;  he,  so  to  speak,  cultivates 
it  so  as  to  render  it  entirely  fitted  to  the  use  which  he  means 
to  make  of  it ;  he  conducts  it  step  by  step,  sometimes  by 
difficult  and  mysterious  paths,  which  are  afterwards  recog- 
nized with  admiration.  Jesus  Christ  having  chosen  the  son 
of  Jonas,  thenceforth,  if  I  may  so  speak,  engaged  in  his. 
education.  How  much  had  to  be  done  to  discipline  that 
wild  energy,  to  regulate  that  impassioned  vivacity,  to  purify 
that  too  carnal  zeal,  to  humble  that  presumptuous  ardor  ! 
Parents,  teachers,  pastors,  come  and  study  in  the  divine 
school  of  Jesus  Christ.  Come  to  this  normal  school,  and 
learn  perseverance,  skill,  that  inexhaustible  indulgence,  and 
that  courageous  charity  which  does  not  spare  a  beloved 
pupil  any  of  the  conditions  of  a  painful  novitiate.  Jesus 
Christ  directly  or  indirectly  educated  all  his  apostles  ;  but 
with  what  special  solicitude  did  he  educate  the  Apostle,  on 
whom,  as  on  a  rock,  his  Church  was  to  be  built !  You 
might  perhaps  have  thought  that  the  disciple  whom  Jesus 
loved,  that  St.  John  would  be  the  object  of  his  greatest  care. 
Assuredly  he  did  provide  for  the  education  of  St.  John.  It 
was  given,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  on  the  bosom  of  Jesus. 
St.  John  was  nourished  in  silence  by  the  words  of  his  Master, 
was  penetrated  with  his  spirit,  appropriated  his  divine 
secrets.  For  a  period  still  distant  he  treasured  up  remem- 
brances and  inspirations  of  infinite  value.  A  pure  and 
peaceful  star,  he  was  not  to  rise  on  the  horizon  of  the 
Church ;  he  was  not  to  shed  the  full  light  of  his  instructions 
upon  it  until  all  the  other  apostles  had  acted  and  spoken ; 


354  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

and  his  word,  like  the  last  fruit  of  the  season,  was  to 
be  the  magnificent,  new,  unexpected  complement  of  the 
lessons  of  a  St.  Peter,  a  St.  James,  a  St.  Paul.  It  was  for 
this  future  that  he  warmed  himself,  that  he  ripened  silently 
in  that  intimacy,  at  once  glorious  and  humble,  with  a  Master 
whom  it  was  given  him  above  all  the  other  disciples  well  to 
know  and  understand.  His  education,  began  by  Jesus  Christ, 
was  to  be  finished  slowly  in  the  solitude  and  meditation  of 
old  age.  But  Simon's  hour  was  less  distant.  It  was  about 
to  strike.  The  first  blows  in  the  war  which  was  preparing 
were  to  be  struck  by  him.  His  was  moreover  a  mighty 
-nature,  but  rude,  full  of  roughnesses,  formed  of  the  strongest 
contrasts ;  and  there  was  such  a  connection  between  his 
qualities  and  his  defects,  that  it  would  perhaps  have  been 
impossible  for  any  other  instructor  to  lop  off  the  defects 
without  impairing  the  qualities.  The  highly  privileged  and 
sometimes  apparently  exclusive  attention  of  which  St.  Peter 
was  the  object  on  the  part  of  Jesus  Christ,  may  enable  us  to 
estimate  at  once  both  the  difficulty  of  the  task  and  its  high 
importance.  Questions,  addresses,  reprimands,  nothing  is 
spared ;  every  thing  is  lavished.  Jesus  Christ  teaches  St. 
Peter  by  facts  as  by  words.  He  dwells  with  him,  he  makes 
him  his  agent  and  representative ;  he  puts  him  beforehand 
into  contact  with  his  future  part,  and  makes  it  habitual  to 
him.  In  fine,  he,  in  his  providence,  exposes  him  to  a  trial 
under  which  St.  Peter  falls ;  but  it  is  to  raise  him  humbler, 
meeker,  stronger.  After  all  the  vicissitudes  of  a  necessary 
novitiate,  he  consecrates  him  personally  and  apart  from  all 
the  other  disciples  to  the  apostleship  which  he  is  to  exercise 
along  with  them  ;  and,  strange  to  say,  this  consecration  to 
the  holy  ministry  has  the  character  of  an  absolution. 

We  have  learned  by  the  example  of  St.  Peter,  that  when 
God  destines  an  individual  to  serve  as  the  instrument  to  his 
designs,  still  more  when  he  means  to  place  him  as  a  rock  in 


SIMON    PETER.  355 

the  foundations  of  his  Church,  he  has  regard  to  his  natural 
qualities,  and  afterwards  with  admirable  art  forms  him  gra- 
dually for  the  employment  with  which  he  means  to  invest 
him.  Must  I  now  add  that  he  gives  him  the  essential  con- 
dition of  such  a  ministry  in  all  its  stages,  the  quality  without 
which  all  others  are  nothing,  consequently  that  which  God 
cultivates  with  the  greatest  care,  namely,  faith ;  I  mean 
faith  in  the  great  mystery  of  godliness  which  the  Gospel  re- 
veals, God  manifest  in  the  flesh  ?  It  were  strange  and  con- 
tradictory if,  while  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  consists 
precisely  in  this  faith,  is  founded  on  this  faith,  we  could 
without  this  faith,  without  the  profession  of  this  faith,  take  an 
active,  direct,  and  leading  part  in  the  establishment  of  the 
reign  of  God  upon  earth.  No  ;  all  natural  gifts  are  little  in 
comparison  with  this  spiritual  gift ;  all  talents  are  vain,  and 
their  culture  lost  pains,  if  this  faith  does  not  purify,  trans- 
form, sanctify  them.  This  is  the  twofold  observation  which 
we  have  to  make  on  the  son  of  Jonas.  On  the  one  hand,  his 
natural  qualities  could  not  have  made  him  the  head  of  the 
rising  Church,  unless  in  so  far  as  he  was  by  his  faith  a  living 
member  of  it ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  his  natural  qualities 
themselves  could  only  from  his  faith  have  received  this  ma- 
turity and  form  which  might  render  them  profitable  to  the 
Church  of  God. 

Can  it  be  necessary,  brethren,  to  prove  the  first  of  these 
truths  ?  How  can  one  without  being  a  member  of  a  so- 
ciety become  its  leader  or  conductor  ?  And  how  can  one 
be  a  member,  without  having  espoused  either  its  principles 
or  its  interests  ?  This  may  be  applied  to  every  society, 
even  to  political  societies.  The  man  who  would  govern  it 
without  understanding  it  would  be  its  tyrant.  He  would 
never  be  its  leader.  But  how  much  more  true  is  this  of  a 
society  wholly  spiritual  ?  Such  a  society  being  founded  in 
the  view  of  certain  principles,  and  having  no  other  end  than 


356  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

their  promulgation,  can  only  choose  for  leader  a  man  who 
loves  them,  and  consequently  professes  them.  Now  the 
principle  of  Christian  society  is,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son 
of  the  living  God.  Away  from  this  principle,  this  society 
has  no  principle.  This  truth  falling,  it  falls.  For  it  has  no 
longer  any  end,  any  reason  to  exist,  and  even  its  name  is  no 
more  than  a  name.  It  is  this  which  authorizes  us  to  say 
that  the  rock  of  Christ  is  not  Peter  personally,  but  the  word 
which  he  addresses  to  Jesus,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  the  living  God."  At  different  periods,  however,  attempts 
have  been  made  to  rear  the  edifice  of  the  Christian  Church 
on  another  foundation.  As  the  centre  of  this  Church  has 
been  assumed  a  Jesus,  who  is  not  the  Christ,  not  the  Son  of 
the  living  God.  This  fictitious,  false  society,  had  stolen  the 
name  of  Church,  and  we  cannot  help  wondering  with  fear  at 
the  fatal  dexterity  which,  in  proscribing  the  thing,  takes  care 
to  preserve  the  name.  By  this  means  alone,  by  imposing  on 
the  minds  of  men,  could  the  enemy  obtain  any  success.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  the  declaration  of  St.  Peter  being  suppressed, 
the  Church  and  Christianity  became  only  vain  words,  the 
ministry  only  an  usurpation,  the  sacraments  a  sacrilegious 
sport.  The  meaning,  the  truth  of  all  these  things  is  only  in 
these  words  of  Peter,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God  !"  thou  art  the  Christ,  the  anointed  of  the  Lord, 
possessed  of  that  threefold  unction,  which,  under  the  ancient 
law,  was  shared  between  kings,  priests,  and  prophets.  Thou 
art  the  king  of  mankind,  thou  art  the  sovereign  prophet  to 
whom  the  Spirit  was  given  without  measure,  thou  art  the 
eternal  priest,  offering  to  God  in  thy  life  and  in  thy  death 
the  reparation  of  which  sacrifice  is  only  the  emblem.  Thou 
art  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  of  that  God,  who  is  not  a 
pure  conception  of  our  intellect  and,  so  to  speak,  a  longing 
of  our  reason,  but  of  that  God  who,  distinguishing  himself 
or  detaching  himself  from  his  creation,  has  produced  him- 


SIMON    PETER.  357 

self  to  us  as  a  person,  has  manifested  himself  within  the 
circle  of  time,  has  mingled  his  history  with  our  history, 
has  shed  his  remembrance  over  ages ;  and,  in  regard  to 
man,  has  ceased  to  be  a  thought  or  a  necessity  to  become 
a  being,  a  personal  God,  a  true  God.  To  say  all  in  one 
word.  Thou  art  the  Mediator,  uniting  in  thyself  all  the 
fulness  of  divinity,  and  all  the  fulness  of  humanity,  the  living 
tie  between  God  and  man ;  in  whom,  by  fact  and  substan- 
tiality, are  reconciled  the  eternal  Creator,  and  the  creature 
formed  in  his  image.  Thy  death  has  consummated,  has 
consecrated  this  reconciliation  ;  but,  Oh,  only  Son  of  the 
holy  God,  by  assuming  our  flesh  and  our  condition,  thou 
hast  effected  this  already ;  already  was  human  nature  re- 
stored in  thy  person,  and  thy  death  authorized  every  indi- 
vidual to  whom  this  humanity  belongs,  to  share  in  this  ge- 
neral restoration  !  Yes,  thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God  ;  thou  art  so,  since  thou  art  not  a  meteor  of  his- 
tory, a  delusion  of  fancy,  a  phantom,  a  dream  of  the  hu- 
man mind.  Thou  art  nothing,  less  than  nothing  for  con- 
science and  salvation,  or  thou  art  indeed  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  the  living  God.  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God,  or  there  is  no  Church.  What  do  I  say  ?  No 
Church  ?  No  hope,  no  future,  no  heaven,  no  God ;  and  a 
little  dust  moistened  with  a  few  tears,  expresses  the  whole 
destiny  of  poor  human  nature  ! 

What  semblance  is  there  that  without  believing,  without 
loving,  without  proclaiming  this  truth,  one  can  be  the  minis- 
ter, far  less  the  rock  of  the  Churcli  ?  But  it  must  be  added 
that  this  faith  alone  can  raise  the  natural  gifts  of  an  apostle 
of  the  Gospel  to  the  highest  of  their  distinction.  This  faith 
which  is  religious  truth,  includes  also  moral  truth.  It  is  the 
centre  and  link  of  all  the  virtues.  To  speak  more  properly, 
by  it,  and  it  alone,  each  quality  becomes  a  virtue.     Without 


358  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

it  the  most  precious  qualities  become  obstacles,  and  what 
seemed  the  safest  shores,  become  dreadful  rocks.  It  alone 
appropriates,  tempers,  accords,  conciliates,  animates  without 
agitating,  elevates  without  troubling,  develops  with  harmony. 
What  is  carnal  and  passionate  in  our  best  feelings  is  rejected 
as  impure  dross  by  this  divine  flame,  and  the  metal  washed, 
so  to  speak,  by  fire,  is  thereafter  fit  for  all  the  uses  of  the 
sanctuary.  Prudence  becomes  zealous,  and  zeal  becomes 
prudent ;  rashness  is  formed  into  courage,  conviction  no 
longer  borrows  its  strength  from  the  spirit  of  contention, 
enthusiasm  learns  patience,  devotedness  accustoms  itself  to 
dispense  with  glory,  and  even  with  success  ;  so  much  so,  that 
he  who  has  only  sown,  frankly  rejoices  with  him  who  reaps. 
In  fine,  severity  detracts  not  from  tenderness,  nor  tenderness 
from  severity.  Thus,  at  once  fervent  and  subdued,  obedient 
and  free,  the  believer  carries  to  his  work  both  the  advantages 
of  the  natural  man,  that  grace,  ease,  and  spirituality  which 
are  indispensable,  and  the  prerogatives  of  the  new  man,  just- 
ness, proportion,  rectitude,  consistency,  and  authority.  Happy, 
divine  temperament!  which  is  given  only  those  who  from 
the  bottom  of  their  heart  can  say  to  Jesus,  "  Thou  art  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God !" 

Hence,  brethren,  let  us  not  doubt  that  when  Jesus  Christ 
gave  the  name  of  Peter  to  him  who  had  not  yet  said  to  him, 
"Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  it  was 
because  he  saw  in  him  the  germ  of  that  faith,  or  had  resolved 
to  give  it  to  him.  But  in  order  that  there  might  be  no  mis- 
take, he  renewed  this  same  act  in  new  circumstances  ;  he,  a 
second  time,  says  to  Simon,  "  Thou  art  Peter,"  when  Simon 
had  publicly  said  to  him,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God."  What  had  at  first  been  a  gratuitous  gift, 
a  sovereign  concession,  took  in  some  sort  the  character  of  a 
recompense  or  an  exchange ;  "  Blessed  art  thou,  said  Jesus 
to  Simon,  for  flesh  and  blood  have  not  revealed  it  unto  thee, 


SIMON    PETER.  359 

but  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven  ;  and  I  in  my  turn  say  unto 
thee,  thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  will  I  build  my 
Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 
No  more  ambiguity,  no  more  possibility  of  mistake.  These 
words  display  at  once  the  sovereign  freedom  of  God  and  his 
sovereign  reason ;  his  sovereign  freedom,  in  that  among  all 
who  confess  the  same  faith  as  Simon,  Simon  alone  is  chosen  ; 
his  sovereign  reason,  in  that  he  gives  the  leadership  of  the 
Church  to  a  man  in  whom  the  faith  of  the  Church  and  the 
system  of  Christianity  are  entire  and  living. 

In  fine,  brethren,  facts  have  proved  that  Jesus  Christ  did 
right  in  naming  Simon  ;  and  this  leads  us  to  our  last  reflec- 
tion :  that  it  pertains  to  God  alone  to  name  rightly,  because  it 
pertains  to  him  only  to  try  the  hearts  and  the  reins.  This 
is  a  glory  which  must  be  left  to  him,  a  right  which  we  must 
not  attribute  to  ourselves.  Doubtless,  brethren,  you  under- 
stand me.  I  mean  not  to  interdict  you,  under  pretext  of  the 
respect  due  to  God,  from  all  judgment,  and  consequently 
from  all  decision.  This  were,  in  one  word,  to  declare  hu- 
man life  impossible,  and  give  the  lie  to  the  Gospel  itself,  of 
which  numerous  important  precepts  presuppose  the  exercise 
of  the  right  which  I  should  have  denied.  To  quote  only  a 
single  example  :  how  could  we  absolutely  refuse  to  a  man 
the  faculty  of  knowing  his  fellow,  and,  up  to  a  certain  point, 
of  judging  him,  when  Jesus  Christ  himself,  speaking  of  the 
teachers  of  religion,  says  to  his  disciples,  '*  Ye  shall  know 
them  by  their  fruits  ?"  What  a  person  is  at  a  given  mo- 
ment, what  he  is  with  regard  to  another  person  or  object, 
and  even  what  he  is  as  to  his  character,  which  is  not  his 
soul,  but  the  manifestation  of  his  soul,  we  can  know,  or  at 
least  presume  ;  for  in  these  difl?erent  respects,  we  seldom  go 
beyond  a  strong  probability.  But,  dearly  beloved  brethren, 
to  presume  or  even  to  know  all  this,  is  not  to  know  absolute- 
ly what  an  individual  is.     What  he  is  is  properly  and  only 


360  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

what  he  may  he  ;  what  he  is  is  what  he  will  become.  The 
profound  and  invisible  germ  of  his  future  course  constitutes 
his  personality.  But  who  knows  this  germ  ?  When  a  man 
becomes  something  else  than  we  imagined,  or  even  the  con- 
trary, what  do  we  say  1  that  we  know  him  not ;  that  the 
event  has  revealed  in  him  an  element  which  had  escaped  us. 
For  we  never  think  of  supposing  that  he  has  suddenly  be- 
come essentially  different  from  what  he  was.  Now  this 
happens  to  us  very  often  to  be  a  lesson  to  us.  Since  in 
certain  cases  an  element,  thus  essential,  has  escaped  us,  we 
ought  to  think  that  in  each  individual  the  lowest  depth  is 
hidden  from  our  view.  Who,  besides,  knows  to  what  extent 
circumstances  modify  a  man's  character  and  whole  moral 
being  ?  How  often,  under  tHe  force  of  circumstances,  do 
two  individual  existences  essentially  alike  appear  different, 
how  often  alike,  though  essentially  different !  In  order  to 
appreciate  them,  would  it  not  be  necessary  to  be  able  to 
separate  the  person  from  the  circumstances  which  surround 
him  ?  And  who  would  presume  to  attempt  this  ?  Who 
could  flatter  himself  with  exactly  calculating  the  influence 
of  circumstances  ?  None  but  God.  Who,  moreover,  could 
separate  a  man  from  his  opinions,  which  very  often  come  to 
him  from  without,  which  often  are  no  more  to  his  soul  than 
clothes  to  his  body,  and  nevertheless  seem  part  of  himself? 
Who  will  make  this  separation  ?  None  but  God.  With 
great  reason  has  a  father  of  the  Church  declared  that  "  each 
man  in  reality  is  only  what  he  is  in  the  eyes  of  God,  nothing 
less  and  nothing  more."  Thus,  then,  strictly  speaking, 
God  alone  can  name  ;  but  the  name  which  he  gives  is  the 
true  name,  the  name  which  exhausts  the  idea,  the  irrevoca- 
ble name,  the  eternal  name.  Let  us  name,  however,  since 
after  all  it  must  be  done  ;  but  let  it  be  with  reserve.  Let 
us  remember  that  our  truest  appellations  are  never  pene- 
trating, never  complete.     Let  us  fear,  above  all,  to  name  in 


SIMON    PETER.  361 

the  way  of  contempt  or  blame  ;  and  since  it  is  our  destiny 
to  be  often  deceived,  let  our  errors  bear  the  stamp  of  that 
charity  which  believeth  all  tilings,  excuseth  all  things, 
beareth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things. 

Dear  brethren,  it  was  not  necessary  for  us  perfectly  to 
name  each  of  our  fellows,  but  it  was  of  infinite  importance 
for  us  properly  to  name  God  ;  and  God  has  not  denied  us 
what  was  thus  most  important.  He  has  told  us  his  name 
in  the  gospel ;  and  henceforth  we  know  that  God  is  holy, 
that  God  is  love.  To  know  this  is  to  know  all.  It  is  to 
know  the  true  name  of  all  things.  It  is  to  know  that  this 
world  is  not  a  chaos,  but  a  world.  It  is  to  know  that  our 
earthly  career  is  not  without  reason  nor  without  end.  It 
is  to  know  that  man,  even  in  the  depth  of  his  fall,  is  a 
being  whose  nature  God  honors.  It  is  to  know  the  true 
name  of  prosperity,  which  is  grace  ;  and  of  distress,  which 
is  trial.  It  is  to  know  that  life  is  not  what  we  call  by  this 
name;  but  that  our  true  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  the 
bosom  of  God.  It  is,  in  fine,  to  know  our  true  name  ;  we 
are  the  children  of  pardon,  after  having  been  the  children 
of  wrath.  All  this  good,  new,  and  sublime  nomenclature 
has  been  proclaimed  from  the  height  of  the  cross,  and 
transcribed  in  the  Gospel,  where  the  most  ignorant  among 
us  can  spell  it  with  the  most  learned.  In  naming  himself, 
God  has  named  all.  O  divine  nomenclator,  divine  instruc- 
tor of  human  nature,  lead  all  men  to  thy  school  !  Fill  all 
hearts  with  a  keen,  insatiable,  holy  curiosity  !  Teach  some 
seriously  to  inquire  by  what  name  thou  art  pleased  to  be 
called  !  Turn  others  aside  from  seeking  thy  name  only  in 
the  laws  of  their  mind,  in  those  of  the  world  and  of  society, 
in  the  wants  of  human  nature,  instead  of  seeking  it  in  that 
utterance  of  the  cross  in  which  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of 
wisdom  and  knowledge.  Let  the  adorable  name  with 
which  thou  wast  named  in  the  humble  inn  of  Bethlehem, 
17 


362  GOSPEL    STUDIES. 

in  tlie  garden  of  Gethsemnne,  and  on  the  rock  of  Golgotha ; 
let  this  majestic  and  consoling  name  become  thy  name  for 
ever  in  our  conscience  and  our  heart.  Let  our  life,  O  God, 
name  thee  as  thou  art  named  !  Let  our  life  correspond  to 
the  name  at  once  glorious  and  mild,  with  which  thou  hast 
named  thyself.  Let  all  our  endeavors  be  to  bear  it  worth 
ily  upon  the  earth  !  let  all  our  ambition  be  to  see  it  for 
ever  confirmed  to  us  in  the  eternal  mansions  I 


THE    END 


CATALOG.UE 

OF 

BOOKS     PUBLISHED     BY 
M.    W.    DODD, 

No.  506  Broadway,  opposite    St.   Nicholas    Hotel, 
NEW  YORK. 


BUNYAN.— GRACE  ABOUNDING  TO  THE  CHIEF 
OF    SINNERS.     In   a  faithful  Account  of  the  Life 
and  Death  of  John  BuNYAN.     i8mo. 

Many  are  not  aware  that  this  is  a  Biography  of  Bunyan  written  by 
himself,  referring  particularly  to  his  remarkable  conversion  and  reli- 
gious experience.  It  is  written  in  a  quaint  and  curious  style,  which 
would  of  itself  lend  interest  to  the  narrative. 

"  It  will  be  eagerly  sought  after  by  all  who  admire  the  spirit  and  genius  of  this 
remarkable  mar." 

COTTA.— THE    SCHONBERG-COTTA    BOOKS    IN 
SEiTS,  comprising 

The  Schonberg-Cotta  Family.    The  Early  Dawn. 

Diary  of  Kitty  Trevylyan.        Winifred  Bertram. 

The  Draytons  &  Davenants.        On  Both  Sides  of  the  Sea. 

i2mo  edition,  beautifully  bound,  6  vols.,  uniform      .  $9  75 
Cabinet  edition,  i6mo.;  tinted  paper,  extra  cloth,  6 

vols.,  uniform  in  an  elegant  cloth  case     .     .     .     .  10  00 
An  elegant  edition,  suitable  for  presentation. 
Sunday-school  edition,  i8mo,  illustrated,  plain  cloth, 

the  first  6  volumes  uniform 6  00 


2  M.  W.  DodcTs  Catalogue, 

CHRONICLES      OF     THE      SCHONBERG-COTTA 
FAMILY.     I  vol.,  121110 $1  50 

Fine  edition.     Crown  8vo,  tinted  paper     ....       2  00 

Cabinet  edition,  i6mo,  tinted  paper     ......       i  50 

Sunday-school  edition,  i8mo,  illustrated  .     .*  .     .       i  00 

Those  famihar  with  the  life  of  Luther  will  remember  Dame  Ursula 
Cotta,  in  Eisenach,  who,  when  he  was  a  lad  singing  from  door  to 
door  to  support  him  at  school,  took  him  to  her  house  and  ever  after 
befriended  him.  The  author  of  this  book,  for  the  purpose  of  repro- 
ducing in  a  more  familiar  form  the  social  life,  the  religion,  and  some 
of  the  chief  historical  events  and  personages  of  that  momentous 
period,  finds  in  the  above  fa6l  a  suggestion  on  which  to  improve. 
The  authoress  manages  her  ingenious  plot  in  the  most  skilful  manner. 
One  can  scarcely  persuade  himself  that  these  are  not  genuine  docu- 
ments fished  out  of  some  old  Lutheran  family  chest 

"  It  is  intensely  interesting,  and  will  be  a  great  favorite  with  the  public.  It  I3 
eminently  one  of  the  star  books  of  the  season." — S.  S.  Times. 

"A  book  of  unusual  attradlion  and  merit,  where  the  interest  never  flags,  and  every 
page  is  full  of  gems.  The  work  might  justly  be  termed  '  A  Romance  of  the  Refor- 
mation.' The  various  incidents  in  the  life  of  Luther  are  portrayed  with  a  graphic 
beauty  and  truthfulness  rarely  equalled."     ♦    •    * 

"  It  is  seldom  a  book  appears  which,  like  this,  has  attra(5lions  for  all  classes  of 
readers.  The  lovers  of  fidlion  and  the  lovers  of  history,  the  pradtical  and  the  sen- 
timental, the  youthful,  and  those  more  advanced,  are  charmed  by  it,  and  its  gentle 
catholic  spirit  will  render  it  equally  attradlive  to  the  Protestant  and  Romanist." — 
Albany  Times. 

"  In  this  work  we  seem  almost  to  meet  the  great  men  of  the  Reformation  face  to 
face,  and  to  be  actually  present  in  the  thrilling  scenes  in  which  they  participated." — 
Afei&odisi. 

"  The  family  history  which  it  contains,  if  read  by  itself,  would  be  regarded  as  one 
of  the  most  successful  portraitures  of  domestic  life  that  has  ever  been  drawn,  each 
character  being  delineated  and  preserved  with  striking  distindlness,  and  some  of 
the  charadlers  being  such  as  the  reader  will  love  to  linger  over  as  he  would  over 
some  beautiful  portrait  drawn  by  a  master's  pencil." — JVew  York  Observer. 

"  The  story  from  first  to  last  is  remarkable  for  its  artlessness  and  tenderness,  and 
it  chains  the  reader's  attention  to  the  close." — Avt.  Tfuo.  Revieto. 

*'  The  prominent  scenes,  from  the  time  of  Huss  to  the  death  of  Luther,  are 
painted  before  us,  and  we  read  them  with  such  interest  as  even  D'Aubign6  caa 
scarcely  create.  The  book  has  all  the  fascination  of  a  romance." — Evaneelicai 
Repository. 


M.  W.  Dodd's  Catalogue.  3 

By  the  Author  of  "The  Schonberg-Cotta  Family." 

THE   EARLY  DAWN  ;   oil,  Sketches  of   Christian 
Life  in  England  in  the  Olden  Time.      By  the 
author  of  the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family.    With  Introduflion 

by  Prof.  H.  B.  Smith,  D.D.     i2mo $i  50 

.  Fine  edition.     Crown  8vo,  tinted  paper    ....       2  00 

Cabinet  edition,  16  mo,  tinted  paper i   50 

Sunday-school  edition,  18  mo,  illustrated      ...       i  00 

The  Christian  Life  of  England  in  the  Olden  Time  is  here  depi6ted, 
through  several  centuries,  from  its  earliest  dawn,  in  its  contrasted 
lights  and  shadows,  down  to  '*  the  morning  star  of  the  Reformation." 
The  Druid  is  fiist  introduced  in  converse  with  the  Jew  and  the  Chris- 
tian. The  Two  Martyrs  of  Verulam  fall  within  the  period  of  the 
Roman  domination,  full  fifteen  hundred  years  ago.  The  fortunes  of 
an  Anglo-Saxon  Family  are  briefly  sketched  through  three  genera- 
tions. The  contests  of  the  Saxon  and  the  Norman,  and  their  different 
traits,  are  vividly  portrayed,  in  the  time  of  the  Crusades.  And  few 
tales  are  more  interesting  and  instru6tive  than  that  in  which  Cuthbert 
narrates  his  experience  in  the  Order  of  St.  Francis  and  his  illumina- 
tion by  the  "  Everlasting  Gospel  "  of  Joachim,  and  Cicely  relates 
how  Dr.  WyclWfe,  of  Oxford,  ministered  to  her  spiritual  needs  and 
insight. 

"  The  undeniabla  charm  of  these  sketches  consists  in  their  simple,  truthful  adhe- 
rence to  the  spirit  and  traits  of  these  olden  times.  The  autiior  has  been  a  diligent 
student  of  the  literature,  and  through  the  literature,  of  the  very  life  of  the  epochs. 
This  is  revealed  in  many  skilful  touches  of  art,  in  incidental  allusions,  apt  citations, 
and  graphic  descriptions  of  scenes  and  persons.  But  more  than  this  is  her  rare  gift 
of  tracing  the  workings  of  the  human  soul  in  its  needs  and  aspirations,  its  human 
'love,  its  divine  longings.  The  permanent  religious  wants,  which  remain  the  same 
under  all  varieties  of  external  fortune,  are  so  truthfully  set  forth  that  the  Past  be- 
comes a  mirror  for  the  Present." — Dr.  Smii/t's  httrod^iction. 

"  The  various  facfts  and  legends  of  Christianity  are  told  in  this  book  in  a  style  of 
romantic  fascination.  It  is  an  unusually  entertaining  and  readable  work." — New 
York  Evening  Post. 

"The  author  carries  us  back  into  the  midst  of  events  and  scenes,  wakes  up  the 
dead  a.flors  and  makes  them  live  again,  and  we  see  not  the  history,  but  the  living 
men  that  made  the  history." — Evangetiral  Repository. 

"  We  do  not  know  where  to  look  for  a  book  that  combines  such  beauty  of  style. 
•  ich  charming  simplicity  and  variety  of  expression,  with  such  sv/eetness  of  spirit 
It  is  full  of  beauty,  and  everywhere  pervaded  with  a  loving,  catholic  5pirit."--//ar^ 
fcrd  Press. 


D 


M.  W.  Dodd's  Catalogue, 

Bv  the  Author  of  "The  Schonberg-Cotta  Faml  /.'' 
lARY  OF  MRS.  KITTY  TREVYLYAN.     A  Story 
OF  THE  Times  of  Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys. 
By  the  author  of  the   Schonberg-Cotta  Family.     With  a 
Preface  by  the  author  for  our  edition.     I2m(      .         $15° 

Fine  edition,  crown  8vo,  tinted  paper 2  00 

Cabinet  edition,  i6mo,  tinted  paper i  50 

Sunday-school  edition,  i8mo,  illustrated     .  .     .     i  00 

The  diary  begins  in  1745  and  gives  us  a  charming  pidlure  of  rural 
life  and  simplicity  in  Cornwall.  At  the  date  the  story  opens  the 
"  mischievous  fanatics,"  Whitefield  and  Wesley,  begin  to  disturb  the 
parish  with  their  plain  preaching.  Kitty  very  soon  goes  up  to  Lon- 
don to  pay  a  visit  to  the  family  of  her  uncle,  who  is  a  dissenter,  and 
there  she  meets  those  reformers,  who  are  turning  the  kingdom  upside 
down  with  their  new  doctrines.  The  main  interest  of  the  book  is 
religious,  yet  the  state  of  the  country  at  that  time,  the  habits  of  so- 
ciety, the  dangers  of  travelling,  and  the  faithful  pi6lures  of  the  dress 
and  manners  of  that  age  will  interest  all  who  are  not  attracted  by  the 
graver  matters  of  the  story. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  immense  popularity  of  the  Schonberg  Cotta  Chronicle,  we 
should  not  be  surprised  if  Mrs.  Kitty  Trevylyan  completely  rivals  them  in  popular 
favor.  All  the  good  qualities  that  gained  so  much  success  for  the  writer's  previous 
books  are  found  in  this,  while  the  subjedl  undoubtedly  offers  superior  advantages  to 
those  where  the  scene  is  laid  in  remote  times  or  in  a  foreign  land.  The  family  group 
in  the  old  homestead,  on  the  storm-vexed  shores  of  Comwall,  becomes,  from  the 
author's  skilful  painting,  and  fine  perception  of  character,  a  reality  from  henceforth  to 
her  readers  ;  and  when  the  heroine  leaves  it  to  gain  the  glimpses  of  the  great  world 
that  form  the  historical  portion  of  the  book,  she  carries  v/ith  her  the  good  wishes  of 
all."— A^.  }':  TUmes. 

"  The  beauty  of  the  '  Diary '  is  its  homelike  simplicity,  its  delicate  portraits,  and 
powerful,  because  so  perfectly  natural,  sketches  of  life  and  xn-s.x\\\&x%y—  Hari/or^ 
Post. 

"  The  book  is  redolent  with  religious  feeling,  fresh,  pure,  and  sensible  ;  it  abounds 
in  kind  but  keen  thrusts  at  the  follies  and  mistakes  of  conventional  piety  :  it  pushes 
aside  human  creeds  that  fetter  and  conceal  the  Bible's  plain,  clear  pages  ;  and  it  is 
quite  remarkable  for  its  nice  dete6tion  of  the  starting-points  of  error,  the  places  where 
divine  doclrines  have  been  spliced  with  human  ones." — Vermofii  Record. 

"We  think  this  decidedly  the  author's  best  work,  better  even  than  the  *  Cotta 
Family.'  It  sparkles  on  aln.ost  every  page  with  gems  of  thought,  while  the  v  \rrativ« 
»s  one  of  absorbing  interest." — .5*.  S.  Times. 


M.  IV.  Dodd's  Catalogue.  5 

By  the  Author  of  "The  Schonberg-Cotta  Family." 

WINIFRED    BERTRAM;    and    The    World    she 
Lived  in.     By  the  author  of  the    Schunberg-Cotia 

Family,     i  vol.  i2mo $i   75 

Fine  edition,  crown  8vo,  tinted  paper 2  50 

Cabinet  edition,  i6mo,  tinted  paper i   75 

Sunday-school  edition,  i8mo,  illustrated     ....       i  00 

Unlike  the  author's  previous  works,  it  is  not  historical,  but  a  story 
of  modern  life,  with  its  scene  laid  in  the  heart  of  London.  Winifred 
is  a  bright  child,  who  very  early  in  a  naive  way  begins  to  be  blast^, 
having  nothing  to  do  but  gratify  her  own  childish  desires.  The  lesson 
of  the  book  is  that  one  can  only  live  happily  and  profitably  by  sym- 
pathy with  others,  and  in  exertion  to  benefit  others.  The  chara6lers 
are  all  ordinary  and  natural  people,  and  the  plot  is  without  one  sen- 
sational incident,  but  the  author's  genius  for  irradiating  the  common, 
her  simple,  pure  spirit,  her  delicate  humor,  her  faculty  of  seizing  upon 
and  representing  chara6ler  with  fidelity,  and  the  lovely  spirit  of  mo- 
rality and  religion,  make  the  book  a  delightful  one.  The  whole  story 
is  suffused  with  vivacity  and  grace. 

"  George  Elliot,  whom  we  regard  as  the  sjeatest  female  novelist  of  the  age,  never 
exceeded  the  terseness  and  epigrammatic  force  of  expression  of  some  passages  in 

Winifred  Bertram The  allegory  of  the  expanding  and  contradting 

chamber  is  one  of  the  most  exquisite  things  iu  modern  literature." — Round  Table. 

"  A  charming  and  quickening  story,  as  w«  might  anticipate  from  the  author."— 
Congregationalist. 

"  Delightful  and  charming  are  not  properly  descriptive  of  it,  for  while  it  is  both,  it 
is  more  than  both  ;  it  is  of  the  kind  of  books  tliat  one  cannot  read  without  growing 
better." — Indianapolis  State  Jaiirnal. 

*'  It  differs  from  its  predecessors  in  that  it  is  a  story  of  our  own  time,  but  it  is  like 
them  in  its  felicitous  portraiture  of  charadler,  its  life-likeness  in  narrative  and  dia- 
logue, and  its  exquisite  illustrations  of  precious  gospel  trxKh." — Christian  Times. 

"  In  her  previous  works  it  might  have  been  supposed  that  some  part  of  their  suc- 
cess was  due  to  the  happy  choice  of  her  subjedls,  or  to  the  quaintness  and  novelty 
of  the  form  in  which  they  were  presented.  But  here  ther«  is  no  gentle  illu?ion  of 
the  kind,  and  the  effedl  is  to  place  her  clearly  foremost  among  thi  living  writers  of 
religious  stories.  It  is  altogether  the  best  and  ablest  book  oi  the  accomplished 
author. " — Sunday-School  Times. 

"  A  succession  of  pictures  of  conversations,  scenes,  and  corpments.  which  k1m>w  % 
wonderful  memsure  of  shrewd  common  sense  and  genuine  knowledge  ot  humat  na 
ture." — National  Baptist. 


6  M.  VV.  Dodd's  Catalogue. 

By  the  Author  of  "  The  Schonberg-Cotta  Family." 

THE    DRAYTONS    AND    THE    DAVENANTS.     A 
Story  of  the  Civil  Wars.     By  the  author  of  the  Schon- 
berg-Cotta Family,     i  vol.  i2mo $i  75 

Cabinet  edition,  i6mo,  tinted  paper i  75 

Sunday-school  edition,  i8mo,  illustrated    ....       i  00 

This  work,  the  opening  scene  of  which  is  in  New  England,  is  asHO- 
dated  with  a  period  of  English  history  in  the  17th  century,  involving 
political  and  religious  questions  in  which  Americans  are  deeply  in- 
terested. In  its  vivid  and  truthful  impersonations  of  character,  its 
great  historic  interest,  its  inimitable  pidures  of  domestic  life,  min- 
gled throughout  with  an  unaffe6ted  tone  of  religious  sentiment,  the 
author  has  fully  equalled  in  this  volume  her  Cotta  Family,  which  has 
delighted  so  many  thousands. 

"  On  the  whole,  we  are  inclined  to  assign  to  this  a  higher  position  and  greater 
merit  than  to  any  of  Mrs.  Charles'  works." — Independent. 

*' If  this  work  had  preceded  in  its  publication  the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family,  we  are 
not  sure  that  it  would  not  have  rivalled  it  in  popular  favor." — Neiv  York  Evangelist. 

"The  quaint  antique  style  of  the  volume  gives  it  a  strong  flavor  of  those  eventful 
times,  while  the  ta(5l  and  fidelity  with  which  the  prominent  historical  circumstances 
are  interwoven  with  the  ficftitious  incidents  of  the  plot  impart  to  it  an  air  of  natural- 
ness hardly  inferior  to  that  of  a  cotemporary  chronicle.  With  a  curious  instindt  she 
seizes  upon  the  heart  of  different  epochs,  incorporating  it  in  her  descriptions  with 
equal  faithfulness  to  the  truth  of  history  and  of  human  nature." — New  York  Tribune. 

"  The  volume  starts  with  the  first  agitation  of  Protestantism  as  a  political  element 
in  Great  Britain,  and  proceeds  through  the  civil  wars  that  followed.  The  two  fami- 
lies whose  names  afford  a  title  to  the  volume  were  on  opposite  sides  of  the  great 
question  of  the  day,  and  the  story  is  well  wrought  out  in  the  well-known  style  of  the 
author.  Since  the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family,  Mrs.  Charles  has  written  no  book 
which  compares  so  favorably  with  the  former  as  this." — Methodist  Protestant. 

"  It  is  a  living  book,  full  of  tender  sympathies,  holy  thoughts,  and  devout  quick- 
eners,  yet  with  sharp,  clear-cut  delineations  of  charadter.  The  roistering  cavalier, 
the  Christian  reformer,  and,  more  than  all,  the  womanly  women  of  the  time,  gather 
around  us,  and  we  know  and  love  them." — Christian  Register. 

"  To  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans  and  those  who  respe<5l  their  memory,  thia 
admirable  volume  will  have  a  charm  which  even  sympathy  and  interest  rarely  give." 
— New  Haven  Palladium. 

"  All  through  the  story  there  is  evidence  of  that  earnestness  of  feeling  and  refine- 
ment of  thought  that  have  given  such  a  charm  to  this  lady's  writings,  and  have  touched 
the  popular  heart  so  effectively  while  instrudling  and  elevating  the  reader's  tastei 
and  moral  and  religious  aspirat'ons." — Roxlmry  Journal. 


M.  IV.  Dodd's  Catalogue.  7 

By  the  Author  of  "  The  Schonberg-Cotta  Family.  " 

ON  BOTH  SIDES  OF  THE  SEA.     A  Story  of  the 
Commonwealth  and  Restoration.  Being  a  Sequel  to 
"  The  Draytons  and  the  Davenants."     By  the  author  ot 
The  Schonberg-Cotta  Family,     i  vol.  i2mo    .     .     .     $1  75 

Cabinet  edition i  75 

Sunday-school  edition,  i8mo  .     .         i  00 

While  this  work  is  complete  in  itself,  yet  its  historical  value  and 
mterest  are  very  much  heightened  by  reading  it  in  conne6tion  with  its 
companion  volume,  "  The  Draytons  and  the  Davenants,"  where  many 
of  the  leading  characters  are  first  placed  before  the  reader.  These 
two  families  are  in  this  volume,  as  in  the  preceding,  made  the  warp  of 
the  story,  into  which  is  woven  the  history  of  a  most  eventful  period. 
Opening  with  the  tragic  scenes  of  the  execution  of  Charles  L,  we  have 
presented  in  the  highly  dramatic  style  of  the  author — the  establishment 
of  the  Commonwealth  under  Cromwell,  its  brilliant  career,  the  death 
of  the  Protedor,  the  restoration  of  the  Monarchy,  and  the  forcible 
emigration  to  America  of  prominent  a6lors  in  its  previous  overthrow. 

"  The  house  life,  the  public  teaching,  the  political  relations  and  partisanships  of 
these  times  (1637  to  1691)  are  depi6ted  with  consummate  power  and  impressiveness 
in  this  volume  and  the  Draytons  and  the  Davenants,  to  which  it  is  a  sequel." — 
Brooklyn  Gazette. 

"  This  work  will  be  found  to  be  a  vivid  reprodudlion  of  the  scenes  of  those  stirring 
days,  wliich  more  than  any  other  in  profane  history  have  an  interest  for  us,  and  which 
all  Americans  need  to  understand." — Christian  Advocate. 

"  The  scenes  of  the  period  to  which  this  volume  refers  are  depidled  with  consum- 
mate skill  and  rare  beauty,  and  with  such  perfecft  naturalness  that  the  reader  almost 
forgets  that  he  is  not  in  acflual  contadl  with  the  impressive  realities." — Albany 
Express. 

"  It  has  all  the  varied  interests  and  the  peculiar  charm  which  attach  to  the  author's 
ideal  and  yet  historic  narratives  t^iat  are  now  so  familiar  to  the  reading  world.  No 
writer  of  the  present  day  has  more  deservedly  won  a  place  in  the  hearts  of  all  who 
love  the  truth,  and  who  can  appreciate  that  which  is  pure  in  sentiment  and  in  domestic 
life." — IVeru  York  Observer. 

"  It  blends  history^with  romance,  and  interweaves  most  charmingly  lessons  of  the 
richest  moral  instrudlion  and  the  deepest  experiences  of  the  Christian  life." — 
National  Baptist. 

"'On  Both  S;des  of  the  Sea  '  has  certainly  a  charming  flavor  of  the  quaint  spirit 
of  the  time  it  describes,  while  as  a  story  merely  it  is  of  exceeding  interest." — New 
York  Mail. 


a  M.  W,  Dodd' s  Catalogue, 

By  the  Author  of  "The  Schonberg-Cotta  Family." 

MARY,    THE    HANDMAID   OF    THE    LORD.     By 
the  Author  of  the    Schonberg-Cotta   Family.      i6mOj 
tinted  paper.     Cloth  extra $i  25 

This  work  is  intensely  devotional  in  its  nature.  The  subje6l  is 
Mary,  the  Mother  of  the  Lord.  Out  of  her  life  history  the  author 
has  drawn  a  series  of  seven  essays,  all  of  which  are  pure  as  the  water 
of  life.  The  book  is  not  historic,  as  are  the  other  literary  produc- 
tions of  the  same  lady,  but  its  talent  is  none  the  less  marked  than 
that  which  is  displayed  in  the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family.  This  fa6l  is 
enough  to  recommend  it  to  all  lovers  of  truth  and  piety. 

**  It  IS  v.ritten  with  all  the  accomplished  author's  charm  of  style,  and  breathes  a 
devotion  and  fervor  which  cannot  fail  to  kindle  corresponding  emotions  in  the  heart 
of  the  reader  " — Christian  Times. 

"  Novelty  of  incident  of  course  is  not  the  charm  of  this  beautiful  book.  It  is  the 
reverent  and  thoughtful  tone  of  mind  that  the  author  biings  to  the  contemplation  ol 
one  of  the  most  deeply  interesting  characflers  of  holy  v/rit." — New  York  Titties. 

POEMS.  By  the  author  of  the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family. 
Comprising  "  The  Women  of  the  Gospels,"  "  The  Three 
Wakings,"  etc.,  with  other  Poems  never  before  published. 
I  elegant  vol.,  i6mo $1  75 

The  book  is  divided  into  three  parts  ;  the  first  composed  of  a 
series  of  Poems  on  the  Women  of  the  Gospels  (Mary  the  Mother  of 
the  Lord,  Mary  Magdalene,  etc.)  ;  the  second  made  up  of  miscella- 
neous pieces ;  and  the  third  comprising  Llymns  and  Religious 
Poems. 

"  They  are  religious  in  charadler  and  earnest  injcxpression,  and  will  prove  a  very 
acceptable  addition  to  our  devotional  books." — Congregatiottalist. 

"  The  same  clearness  of  expression,  delicacy  of  sentiment,  and  purity  of  English, 
which  mark  her  prose  works,  enrich  these  verses  also." — Southern  Presbyterian. 

"We  have  not  found  in  this  coUedtion  a  single  poem  which' is  not  marked  with 
»ome  striking  thought,  while  the  correcflness  which  is  conspicuous  in  her  prose  com- 
positions equally  follows  her  through  the  mazes  of  her  somev.'hat  various  verse."— 
S.  S.  Times. 

"  Some  of  them  are  very  sweet,  evincing  not  only  much  poetical  talent  but  grea' 
devotional  feeling." — Ills.  State  J(mrnal 


M.   W.  Dodd's  Catalogue.  9 

By  the  Author  of  "The  Schonberg-Cotta  Family." 

WATCHWORDS  FOR  THE  WARFARE  OF  LIFE. 
From  Dr.  Martin  Luther.  Translated  and  arranged 
by  the  Author  of  the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family,  i2mo. 
Elegantly  printed  on  tinted  paper.  Cloth.  Extra  bevelled 
boards, $1  75 

"An  appreciative  mind  has  explored  the  rich  storehouse  of 
Luther's  writing,  and  gathered  with  loving  hand  the  most  valuable 
gems,  and  has  so  arranged  them  that  each  cluster  refle6ls  some 
phase  or  event  of  his  a6lual  life."  These  sele6lions  are  most  sug- 
gestively arranged  under  appropriate  headings.  The  Author  calls 
it  "a  most  appropriate  pendant  to  the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family." 

"  We  have  learned  more  of  Luther's  personal  history  from  the  a?ta  in  this 
volume  than  from  the  most  labored  biography." — Phila.  Press. 

*'  We  cannot  help  thinking  that  this  is  the  most  valuable  of  the  works  of  the 
Author,  as  it  is  certainly  as  interesting  as  any.  It  gives  us  a  betJ^er  idea  than 
volumes  of  history  can  of  the  strength,  and  vigor,  and  originality  of  Luther's 
mind." — Young  Men's  Quarterly. 

"They  show  us  the  heart  of  the  great  Cliristian  warrior  in  the  midst  of  his 
warfare.  Those  relating  to  the  death  of  his  little  daughter,  Magdalena,  are  won- 
derfully beautiful  and  touching." — .5".  6".  Times. 

THE    SONG   WITHOUT  WORDS.      Leaves   from   a 
very  old  book,  dedicated  to  Children.     By  the  author  ot 
the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family.     Beautifully  illustrated,  and 
exquisitely  printed  and  bound.     Square  i6mo.    .     .    $i  oo 
"  A  truly  wonderful  little  allegory,  in  which  a  solitarv  child  by  the 
sea  hears  the  song  without  words  of  the  natural  obje6ls  around  him, 
which  are  described  in  the  most  charming  manner,  and  finally,  dis- 
covers the  words  through  the  aid  of  his  sister,  wrecked  and  thrown 
ashore  near  his  lonely  sea-side  home." 

"  This  httle  story  for  children  reads  like  a  tender  and  exquisite  j-Joem.  It  is  at 
once  a  fairy  tale,  a  lesson  of  pure  religion,  and  a  charmingsea-idyl  in  prose." — In- 
drpcndcut. 

*'  This  is  a  sweet  little  allegory,  poetical  in  its  prose,  and  heavenly  in  its  teachings." 
~— Indianapolis  State  yournal. 

"  It  is  beautifully  printed  and  illustrated,  and  the  story,  which  is  written  in  that 
simple  yet  elegant  style  which  in  former  works  has  gained  the  author  so  many  ad- 
mirers, is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  child  stories  we  have  ever  read." — Daily  IV/s- 


lO  M.  W.  Dodd's  Catalogue, 

C RUBEN'S  COMPLETE  CONCORDANCE  TO  THE 
HOLY  SCRIPTURES;  OR,  A  Dictionary  and 
Alphabetical  Index  to  the  Bible.  By  Alexander 
Cruden,  M.  a. 


IV. — A  Concordance  to  the  Proper 
Names  of  the  Bible,  and  their  meaning 
in  the  original. 

V. — A  Concordance  to  the  Books  called 
the  Apocrypha. 

To  which  is  appended  an  original  life 
of  the  Author,  illustrated  with  an  accurate 
Portrait  from  a  Steel  Engraving, 


By  which,  I. — Any  verse  in  the  Bible 
may  be  readily  found  by  looking  for  any 
material  word  in  the  verse.  To  which  is 
added— 

II. — The  significations  of  the  principal 
words,  by  which  their  true  meanings  in 
Scriptures  are  shown. 

III. — An  account  of  Jewish  customs 
and  ceremonies  illustrative  of  many  por- 
tions of  the  Sacred  Record. 

I  vol.  royal  8vo,  cloth $4  oo 

Sheep ■  .       5  CO 

Half  morocco 6  50 

This  is  the  only  gemiine  and  entire  edition  of  the  complete  work  of 
Cruden — the  only  one  embracing  those  features  which  Cruden  him- 
self and  the  Public,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years,  have  regarded  as 
esse?ztial  to  its  completeness  and  inestimable  value. 

It  is  believed  to  be  the  most  accurate  edition  now  in  existence  of 
the  original  work,  as  it  came  from  the  hands  of  the  author ;  and  is 
the  only  American  edition  having  any  fair  claim  to  his  name.  In  its 
complete  form  it  has  ever  been  regarded  as  immeasurably  superior  to 
any  other  work  of  the  kind. 

"  Cniden's  Concordance,  in  its  unabridged  and  complete  state,  is  invaluable  to 
the  biblical  student,  and  the  abridgments  which  have  been  made  of  it  furnish  no 
idea  of  the  thoroughness  and  fulness  of  the  original  and  complete  work." — Rev. 
Thomas  De  Witt,  D.  D. 

"  Cruden's  Concordance  has  been  the  companion  of  my  whole  life,  both  as  a 
theological  student  and  a  minister ;  and  it  is  the  last  book,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Bible  itself,  that  I  would  consent  to  have  pass  out  of  my  hands." — J?ev.  IVm.  B. 
S Prague,  D.D. 

"  In  reply  to  yours,  I  can  only  say,  that  if  I  possessed  but  two  books  in  the  world, 
they  should  be  God's  Bible  and  Cruden's  Concordance." — Jiev.  Gardiner  Spring, 
LL.  D. 

"  Cruden's  Concordance,  in  its  original  state,  I  consider  above  all  price  to  the 
student  of  the  Scriptures." — Rev.  Francis  Waylatid,  LL.D.,  President  of  Brawn 
University. 

"  The  value  of  Cruden's  Concordance,  unabridged  and  entire,  I  consider  as  in- 
comparable and  indispensable." — Rev.  Samuel  H.  Cox,  D.D. 

"  We  have  often  been  surprised  to  find  intelligent  Christians  who  are  daily 
students  of  the  Divine  Record,  but  who  had  never  had  this  volume.  It  ought  to  be 
in  every  household,  where  every  Sabbath-school  teacher  and  scholar  and  every  rcadei 
eould  hive  access  to  it." — New  York  Observer. 


14  M.  IV.  D odd's  Catalogue. 

MIMPRISS.— GOSPEL  TREASURY  AND  TREAS 
URY  HARMOiNY  OF  THE  FOUR  EVANGE 
LISTS  :  having  the  Text  in  parallel  columns.  With  Scrip- 
ture Illustrations,  Pra6tical  Refle6tions,  and  Addenda 
Geographical,  Biographical,  Topographical,  Historical,  and 
Critical,  illustrating  manners,  customs,  opinions,  and  local- 
ities of  the  Sacred  Narrative,  with  analytical  and  historical 
tables,  and  a  very  copious  index :  also  a  chart,  with  every 
event  numbered  and  localized.  By  Robert  Mimpriss. 
Crown  8vo.,  over  900  pp.  Cloth  extra,  red  edges,  .  $3  50 
Quarto  edition,  large  type,  cloth  extra,       .     .     .     .     12  00 

It  will  be  found  to  supply  an  amount  and  kind  of  information  not 
found  in  any  other  volume,  and  to  fill  an  unoccupied  place  in  the 
literature  of  Bible  Helps.  Its  value  to  Sunday-school  teachers  and 
private  students  of  the  Bible  especially,  is  inestimable. 

The  Harmony  is  according  to  Greswell,  and  ia  the  words  of  the  authorized 
version. 

An  important  feaUcre  is  the  arrangement  of  the  Four  Evangelists  in  parallel 
columns,  and  in  juxtaposition.  This  is  cairied  out  with  great  minuteness,  giving 
a  comparison  of  verses  and  lines,  and  even  words  for  consultation  at  sight.  The 
arrangement  also  admits  of  the  Harmony  being  read  as  a  continuous  narrative. 

The  Notes  have  been  carefully  seledled  from  the  best  sources. 

The  Geographical  noUces  are  from  the  most  reliable  authorities. 

The  A  ddenda  supply  a  great  variety  of  matter  for  consultation,  illustrating  the 
text. 

The  Scripture  Illustrations  are  very  full,  and  are  calculated  to  lead  to  an  intel- 
ligent knowledge  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 

"  It  is  not  easy  to  state  in  a  few  words  the  merits  of  this  extraordinary  book.  To 
say  that  it  is  useful,  excellent,  valuable,  and  the  like,  is  tame,  and  far  below  its 
merits.  It  is  in  all  respefts  a  most  unusual  book,  and  the  labor  in  its  preparation 
must  have  been  immense.  It  is  in  its  own  department  without  a  parallel  in  the 
language,  and  stands  many  degrees  at  the  head  of  its  cXd^s.''''— Primitive  Church 
Magazine,  England. 

"  For  us  who  have  so  earnesdy  approved  the  work,  and  urged  it  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  Sunday-school  teachers,  it  is  quite  unnecessary  to  add  another  word.  It 
ranks  among  the  very  first  companions  of  the  Bible  in  bible  study.  It  is  a  con- 
densed commentary  of  commentaries,  a  right-hand  helper  in  the  preparation  of  New- 
Testament  lessons." — S.  S.  Times. 

"  No  circulation  can  ever  repay  in  money  value  the  time  expended  on  it.  Should 
I  ever  be  permitted  to  g«  over  the  same  ground-  again,  I  expe<5t  to  derive  great 
assistance  from  it." — Rev.  James  Hamilton,  D.D. 

"  The  Gospel  Treasury  prepared  by  Robert  Mimpriss  I  consider  one  of  the  most 
valuable  helps  to  a  Sunday-school  teacher  that  I  have  ever  seen."— /?«^.  Stephen 
H.  Tyng,  D.D. 

"  Anything  like  an  adequate  idea  of  the  immense  amount  of  information  upon 
the  New  Testament  incorporated  within  the  compass  of  this  handsome  volume,  it 
is  difficult  to  convey.  Within  its  portable  compass  we  find  matter  compressed 
sufficient  to  fill  ten  ordinary  demy  octavos." — Sunday-School  Teacher""!  Magazine, 


M.  IV.  Dodd's  Catahgtie.  27 

Q*IMMONS'    SCRIPTURE    MANUAL.     Alphabetically 
^  and  Systematically  arranged.     Designed  to  facilitate  the 
finding  of  Proof  Texts.  By  Charles  Simmons.  i2mo.  %\  ys 
More  than  50,000  copies  of  this  ivork  have  beeji  sold. 

A  reference  to  the  list  of  subje6ts  which  the  work  contains  will 
show  that  the  author's  researches  have  been  extensive,  while  a  com- 
parison of  the  work  with  others  of  the  same  general  chara(Ser  cannot 
fail  to  give  it  pre-eminence.  While  the  track  pursued  is  not  new,  it 
is  more  thorough  and  more  easily  followed  than  that  marked  out  by 
any  previous  compiler  known  to  myself.  The  work  contains  not 
merely  the  proof  texts  on  the  subje6l  to  which  it  refers,  but,  what 
appears  to  my  own  mind  one  of  its  excellences,  the  texts  that  illits- 
trate  these  subjedts.  Though  the  arrangement  of  the  subjects  is 
alphabetical,  in  the  illustration  of  the  subje6ls  themselves,  the  author 
has  observed  that  conne6tion  between  one  truth  and  another  which 
gives  to  each  its  proper  place. — Dr.  Spj'ing's  Introdudlion. 

"  This  is  a  rich,  copious,  well-seledled,  and  well-arranged  text-book,  exhibiting  the 
results  of  great  labor,  in  bringing  together  numerous  proof  texts,  striflly  allied  in 
their  meaning,  on  a  very  large  number  of  subjecfls— so  formed  as  to  present  in  their 
beautiful  symmetry  the  features  of  evangelical  truth.  It  is  justly  regarded  as  the 
most  valuable  work  of  the  kind  ever  published  in  our  language,  and  we  commend  it 
to  the  attention  of  ministers,  Sunday-school  teachers,  and  all  persons  who  desire  the 
aid  of  a  manual  in  acquiring  the  most  important  knowledge." — Christia?t  Observer, 
Philadelphia. 

"  It  is  incomparably  supei'ior  to  anything  of  the  kind  with  which  I  am  acquainted, 
and  its  extensive  circulation  and  use  cannot  but  have  a  happy  influence.  I  have  no 
doubt  tliat  the  work  will  soon  supersede  every  other  of  the  kind,  as  I  am  clearly  of 
the  opinion  that  it  should." — Rev.  Albert  Barties. 

"  The  arrangement  of  the  topics  is  so  logical,  and  the  citations  from  Scripture  are 
so  numerous,  so  emphatical,  and  in  the  main  so  pertinent,  as  to  make  the  general 
impression  of  the  Bible  obvious  even  to  the  cursory  reader." — Rev.  Dr.  Park,  An- 
dover  Tlieo.  Seminary. 

"  I  consider  your  text-book  to  be  remarkably  suited  to  the  objecfl  in  view,  and  likely 
to  be  tJie  book  which  will  satisfy  not  only  common  people,  but  ministers,  and  all  men 
of  logical  mind  and  cultivated  taste.  It  is  my  opinion  that  it  will  take  the  place  of 
all  other  works  of  the  kind,  and  that  nothing  else  will  be  called  for  or  attempted  foi 
a  great  while  to  come." — Rev.  Leonard  Woods,  D.D. 

"  As  a  help  in  the  selecftion  of  proof  texts  on  almost  any  subjedl  in  the  Bible,  1 
know  of  nothing  of  equal  value." — Rev.  Enoch  Pond,  D.D. 

"  It  is  far  more  copious  and  reliable  than  any  work  of  the  kind.  A  better  help  ii 
the  study  of  the  Bible  is  not  accessible." — Congregationalist. 

"The  v/ork  is  the  best  of  the  kind  within  our  knowledge." — New  Englander. 


28  M.  IV.  Dodd's  Catalogue. 

SPENCER.— A  PASTOR'S  SKETCHES  ;  OR,  Conver- 
sations WITH  Anxious  Inquirers,  respecting  the 
Way  of  Salvation.  By  I.  S.  Spencer,  D.D.,  late 
Pastor  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.     2 

vols.  i2mo,  cloth %?i  S^ 

Either  volume  sold  separately. 

It  is  believed  no  stri6lly  religious  work  of  the  present  century  has 
had  so  wide  a  circulation,  or  excited  a  deeper  interest  than  this. 

The  following  titles  of  a  few  of  the  sketches  will  give  an  idea  of 
their  chara6ler  : — Business  Hindrance — Writing  for  Convi6lion — 
The  Whole  Heart— The  Welsh  Woman  and  her  Tenants— The 
Arrow  Driven  Deeper — Human  Resolves — Easy  to  be  a  Christian — 
The  Brown  Jug — My  Old  Mother ;  or,  Conscience  m  Trade — Family 
Prayer — I  can't  Feel. 

"  We  can  convey  no  idea  of  the  exceedingly  happy  and  triumphant  logic  often 
displayed  in  this  volume.  As  an  intelledual  work,  it  is  of  surpassing  interest.  But 
in  a  spiritual  point  of  view,  the  earnest,  absorbing  desire  to  open  plainly  the  vvfay  to 
Christ,  and  the  tender  religious  feeling  pervading  all  these  discussions,  give  the 
work  an  interest  and  value  which  we  feel  in  no  danger  of  exaggerating.'.' — N.  Y. 
Evangelist. 

"  The  picflures  are  true  to  life,  and  are  sketched  with  such  graphic  skill  as  to 
forbid  the  possibility  of  their  having  been  the  produdl  of  mere  fancy.  We  earnestly 
hope  that  the  work  will  have  a  very  wide  circulation." — N.  V.  Observer. 

"  This  is  a  book  of  remarkable  interest.  It  is  one  of  pastoral  experience  ;  and  the 
thrilling  interest  it  gathers  about  many  of  the  scenes  and  incidents  which  it  describes, 
justifies  the  comparison  whicii  has  been  m.ade  of  it  in  this  respeft  to  the  well-knowc 
'Diary  of  a  Physician.'  " — Independent. 

"  Nothing  like  it  exists." — American  Bible  Repository. 

"  This  is  a  remarkable  book.  The  work  is  written  in  a  bold,  clear,  straightforward 
style,  that  carries  the  idea  diredl  to  the  heart." — N.  V.  Recorder. 

"  We  have  rarely  read  a  book  of  religiously  didaftic  character  that  has  abounded 
with  so  much  strong  pradlical  good  sense,  or  so  much  interest  to  us,  as  this  volume.' 
— Co?n.  Advertiser. 

"  To  those  who  are  fond  of  lending  good  books,  we  would  vehemently  commend 
this  as  one  that  will  be  very  sure  to  be  x&diA."— Puritan  Recorder. 

"  The  book  is  in  the  dramatic  form,  and  so  vividly  drawn  that  the  reader  becomes 
not  merely  a  spectator,  or  a  listener,  but  an  a6lor  in  all  that  is  described.  Few  wiU 
be  able  to  leave  it  until  they  have  read  its  last  page." — Literary  Messenger. 

The  Young  Irishman.    The  First  Sketch  in  vol.  i.,  by  it- 
self.    Paper |o  20 


32  M.  IV.  Dodd's  Catalogue. 


^  riNET'S  MISCELLANIES.  Embracing  "  Vital  Chris- 
*  tianity,"  "Review  of  Montaigne,"  "The  Endless 
Study,"  etc.  By  Alexander  Vinet,  D.D.  Translated, 
with  an  Introduction,  by  Robert  Turnbull.  i2mo.  A 
new  edition,  cloth  extra $i  75 

"  Vinet  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  divines  and  preachers  in  Switzerland  ; 
and,  unlike  most  in  that  country,  thoroughly  evangelical  in  sentiment.  The  prm- 
cipal  essays  in  the  volume  are  :  Montaigne  on  Morality — The  Endless  Study — Man 
Created  for  God — Centre  of  Moral  Gravitation — Mysteries  of  Christianity — Natural 
Faith — Christian  Faith — Pracftical  Atheism — Foundation  of  Christian  Morality — 
Claims  of  Heaven  and  Earth  Adjusted — Grace  and  Law — Man  deprived  of  all  Glory 
before  God — Pursuit  of  Human  Glory  incompatible  with  Faith." — Christian  Advo' 
cate  and  jfournal. 

"  His  writings  abound  in  the  seeds  of  things,  and  possess  a  remarkable  power  to 
quicken  and  expand  the  mind  of  the  reader." — Columbian  and  Great  West. 

VINET'S  GOSPEL  STUDIES.     With  an  Introduaion 
by  Robert  Baird,  D.D.     i2mo       $i  50 

"  Such  is  the  title  of  one  of  the  best  books  on  the  subjecfl  of  religion  that  we  have 
seen  for  many  a  day.  In  the  introducflion  of  a  few  pages.  Dr.  Baird  gives  a  short 
notice  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Vinet,  whom  he  pronounces  the  greatest  philosopher  that  the 
continent,  if  not  Europe,  has  produced  in  our  time.  He  has  been  called  the  Chal- 
mers of  Switzerland,  but  not  very  correClly.  He  was  rather  the  John  Foster.  But 
he  had  a  mind  far  more  clear  and  discriminating  than  that  of  the  great  British  essay- 
ist just  named.  It  has  a  freshness  about  it,  and  is  so  removed  from  the  usual  style 
of  an  English  or  American  mind,  that  it  excites  attention  at  every  step." — Journal 
of  Commerce. 


MARRIAGE  CERTIFICATES.  From  an  elegant 
Steel  Engraving,  adapted  to  any  State  in  the  Union. 
Printed  on  plate  paper  for  framing,  or  bank-note  paper  for 
folding.     Per  dozen $1  00 

The  design  is  particularly  neat  and  chaste,  and  is  much  admired 
for  its  simplicity  and  convenience. 

THE  LORD'S  PRAYER,  Cabinet  size.  From  an  elegant 
Steel  Engraving.  The  design  represents  our  Saviour  in 
the  foreground,  teaching  this  Prayer  to  his  disciples  and  the 
multitude $0  25 

A  most  appropriate  reward  or  present  to  Sunday-school  scholars. 


on  Theological  Spminary  Speer  Library 


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GAYLORD  #3523PI       Printed  in  USA 


